Holding Out For a Hero
by SamoaPhoenix9
Summary: AU. Superheroes protect the people of Washington, D.C., and by his own actions a shapeshifter is trapped as a Beast. Meanwhile, a killer is targeting superheroes, calling an apprentice healer to investigate. Holiday Special added!
1. StreetWise Hercules

**Holding Out for a Hero**

**Chapter 1**

_Disclaimer: This new story will only loosely be based on Disney's Beauty and the Beast, but I will faithfully acknowledge them as the originators of a great storyline anyway. Oh, and the title of the story is also the title of a song from the movie/musical "Footloose" (and Shrek 2, if you're more familiar with that)_

The hunt was on. He could smell the fear in his quarry as he stalked the man through the city streets. Sometimes he allowed the man to get so far ahead that his prey might harbor the delusion that he'd eluded his pursuer, but a low growl from somewhere behind would always put him back on the run. Jack grinned fiercely, sharp teeth glittering dully in the ill-lit streets. This would be the day; the day he would have his revenge at last.

The man he followed carried both gun and knife. Jack could smell the tangy metal mixed in with the man's sweat and fear, and his sensitive nose combined with his mentor's training allowed him to assess precisely what sort of weapons he was dealing with. A small handgun, maybe a .38 caliber, and a pure steel knife of about six inches. Nothing Jack couldn't handle. He'd bagged enough criminals in his fairly short lifetime as the superhero the papers had dubbed "Bear-man" to handle anything this guy could dish out. Yet, this man was no ordinary criminal. It had taken him years, but Jack finally had proof that the man who had been systematically robbing every Potbelly's Sandwich Works in town was in fact the same man who had murdered his parents and younger sister in their family-owned restaurant when Jack had been only ten.

"Bear-man" the papers might call him, but Jack's alternate form was far, far more than a bear. As the "Bear-man," Jack had the size and strength of a grizzly bear, the ears and nose of a wolf, the night vision, teeth, and claws of a tiger, and the horns of an ox combined with a human's opposable thumbs and intelligence. Jack had no idea where his shape-shifting abilities had come from, but for as long as could remember he could at will become a massive, shaggy brown creature that seemed from a distance to be a bear but from up close was clearly a nightmare animal woven from the forest's best offense and defense. He had been chosen at an early age to study at the local D.C. school for budding superheroes, and had proved himself upon graduation to be the best of the best. He brought in twice as many criminals a month as most of his classmates combined after he finished his year of mentorship with another shape-shifter. Jack still remembered his high school years fondly, unlike most of his current age of twenty-one. It hadn't hurt that his human form was quite a ladykiller. One look from his ocean blue eyes, a toss of his shaggy brown hair, or a ripple of his well-developed muscles and the girls back in high school would all begin to helplessly swoon. His current girl, however, was a civilian through and through, meaning that she had no powers and had no idea where Jack went at night after she was fast asleep.

Jack pulled his mind away from Melanie and back onto the chase at hand. He knew his teachers back at school, as well as his mentor, had expended a lot of energy worrying about how his parents' and sister's murders had affected him. There had been enough examples of superheroes going bad when pursuing revenge subtly tossed his way over the years to cause him to hide from all who knew him the deep hatred he still harbored towards the man who had deprived him of a warm, loving home. He knew that revenge was especially dangerous for a shape-shifter, because of the undeniable fact that if he or she gave in to the animal instinct and forgot the qualities that made them human, there was no going back. Ever. But Jack could never quite bring himself to care, not with his parents and sister cold in the ground. Besides, he had too good of grasp of himself and who he was as a person to get caught in such a trap.

And now, he was sure that this man was the one he had been chasing all these years. The scent he had smelled at his family's murder site matched that of the one he was pursuing tonight. He had been on stakeout near one of the few Potbelly's that had not yet been robbed, waiting for the intruder so that he could nab him for the police, when he had caught the man's scent. He knew immediately that this was the right man. After years of fruitless searching, his prey had tumbled right into his lap. The opportunity was too good to pass up. Accordingly, instead of grabbing the man immediately and hauling him in to the local police station for questioning, Jack had let him get away. But he also let him know, without a doubt, that his worst nightmare had found him at last and was stalking him from the shadows.

He heard a sharp intake of breath from a block or two down the road. Jack's teeth gleamed again. He knew every corner of D.C like the back of his hand; there had been a whole class in street navigation his sophomore year in high school. The street the man had chosen in his desperate attempt to escape took a sharp twist and ended in a brick wall. Perfect.

Jack dropped to the street level from where he had been clinging to a nearby roof, landing softly for one of his immense bulk. He padded silently to the entrance of the alley, keeping himself out of sight. When he was in position, he growled again, more loudly than before.

There was a click of a gun cocking. "W-who's there? Show yourself!" the man demanded from around the corner.

"I'll show myself when I'm good and ready," Jack snarled, then sighed. Answering a criminal back when they asked a question. An amateur mistake, and one that shouldn't have happened to a hero of his caliber. But the fact that the murderer of his family was but feet away excited his senses beyond belief. Jack could close his eyes and _see_ him, standing stiffly with that gun pointed at nothing. The stink of fear was hot in his nostrils.

He used his claws to pull himself up the wall again. When he was in position, he crouched low. "I want you to think back for a moment," he said. The gun went off as the man aimed to where the voice was coming from, but the shot went wide. Jack didn't even have to duck. "Think back," he continued, "To the night of September the 18th, 1991. Tell me where you were that night."

"I…I have no idea," the man mumbled. "Been a long time since then…"

"Allow me to refresh your memory. You were in a restaurant. You shot a man, his wife, and their daughter to death."

"I-I don't know nothin' about that! That wasn't me!" the man screeched.

"Don't insult their memory by lying," Jack said. "You killed them, in cold blood. Innocent people who had to indecency to try to stop you when you were robbing them out of money they had honestly earned. Well, tonight it ends, and they will finally have justice!"

"Who are you?" the man yelled. Jack heard his shoes scrape as he spun, trying to cover all quarters with his single weapon.

"I am the son you robbed of parents that night. I am the boy you robbed of a little sister. And I am the last thing you will ever see." At this, Jack leapt.

The gun fired again. Jack felt the bullet hit his shoulder, but he barely noticed as he landed, all 500 pounds of him, on his victim. The man screamed once, and buckled. Jack went down with him, clawing like a wild thing, all thought devoid except to make certain the man never rose again.

Abruptly, he came to himself. He was a superhero, they never killed if they could help it, though often their powers made it all too easy. He backed away, staring at what he had done. There was blood everywhere: on his muzzle, his paws, the filthy alley road. The man's body was a shredded mass.

Remarkably, he was still conscious. He was staring at Jack, his fading eyes glazed in horror. As the last breath left his lips, he whispered something. In his human form Jack would never have heard it, but his sharp animal's ears made it all too clear.

"Monster…_beast_…"

Jack stared at the body for a long time. It was the stinging of his shoulder that finally brought him around. He looked, and remembered the bullet wound. Changing back to his human form would heal it and remove the bullet itself, though he knew from experience he would feel the bruises for at least a week. Jack closed his eyes, willing the change to his handsome body to begin.

Nothing happened. A tremor of nerves ran through him, though Jack refused to panic yet. He tried again. Still nothing. And nothing again in response to a third try.

A sudden breeze caused the acid scent of blood to wash over his sensitive nose. At that moment, Jack suddenly realized what he'd done. He'd killed a man, for the first time in his life. The animal side of him, the side he'd always been able to control, had taken over. His mentor's words sounded in his ears like a siren: "Never forget, boy, your animal side is build for the hunt. Use that instinct in your quest for justice, but never let it control you. If you do, there is no coming back from it. You will be that animal, forever."

"Isn't there any way of turning back into a human once that happens?" He heard again his own innocent question.

"There is none that has ever been successful, except for death," his mentor had replied solemnly. "So pay attention, and don't ever allow such a fate to come on you."

For the first time since he had been informed of his family's demise, Jack was truly afraid. Closing his eyes, he threw all his effort into one last attempt to change back into a human. Then his brought his hand up before his face and opened his eyes.

A shaggy paw, tipped with retractable claws and smeared with brilliant red blood, glared back at him.

"It can't be!" he gasped. Forgetting all else, he turned and blindly ran on all fours through the dimly light streets of D.C.

He was staggering from exhaustion and bloodloss when he finally realized where his steps were taking him: to his own apartment. He lurched inside, panting heavily, and fell on the bed, begging the nightmare to be over when he woke up.

A scream roused him instead. He opened his eyes to see Melanie, her eyes filled with horror, shrieking bloody murder as she frantically dialed on the telephone.

"Melanie, it's me," he said, confused at her fear. But when he heard his own growling voice, his heart sank. He tried to get up, but he was far too weak.

"Police! Police!" Melanie was screaming into the phone, "There's a monster in my boyfriend's apartment, and there's blood all over the place! Please, help!"

"Melanie, don't," Jack tried to gasp again, but all that came out was a weak growl. "Melanie…" His vision blurred, and he blacked out again.

When he finally was able to peel his eyes open, he was confused by what he saw. It was dark, and there were trees all around. "What…" he started to say.

Something moved against the black-on-black background. Jack's cat vision easily identified the figure: his old mentor. There was no mistaking those weary features and long braided silver hair. His alternate form was a grey wolf.

"Yer lucky," he said, his voice even in human form half a growl, with a bit of a Texas twang that revealed his origins.

Jack choked on a part-snarl, part-laugh. "Lucky?"

"Lucky to be alive, at least. Though under the circumstances, if I were you I might rather I was dead." He paused. "I got you outa yer apartment, brought you here to the park, patched you up. Couldn't get the bullet out, but you should survive. That shoulder will still give you some pain. How long, I can't say." Another pause. He looked down at his leather boots. "I'm sorry."

"_Sorry?_"

"Jack, sonny, I warned you. We all warned you where revenge would go. I hoped it would never come to this, but this is you now." He held up a mirror. In it, Jack saw his own face, the one covered with shaggy fur, with a snout of gleaming teeth, swiveling wolf's ears, and small, sharp horns. Only the blue eyes were left, but they had a cat's slit pupils instead of round human ones.

Utter despair rolled over Jack. "Is there…nothing I can do?"

"I heard a story, once, that a shapeshifter was able to regain his human form by falling in love with a human girl and getting her to love him in return. It's a long shot, I know, but it's all I have."

"That's _all_? That's all I get? One story that _might_ let me change back again, _if_ it's true? Look at me! No one will ever love such a hideous creature."

"You broke rule numero uno, kid. There isn't supposed to be any comfort in that." His mentor crossed his arms, his golden wolf's eyes hard. "I'll keep an eye on you as I can, but only because I once thought there was some decency in you. Don't expect any more from me." He vanished into the darkness of the park's woods.

Jack could have easily followed him, had he wanted to. But sudden shame washed over him. He was a monster now. He didn't deserve the company of humans, or even someone as close to him as his mentor had once been. And Melanie…maybe she had loved his human self, but he had always known deep down that she would never come to accept his other half. The half that was now his whole self. The other part, the part he'd once taken for granted, was gone forever.

With a wailing, painful cry that made people within half a mile of that park start up in their beds and clutch at whatever was nearest and most familiar for comfort, Jack turned and fled deep into the park.

Legends grew up about that park over the next few years. Strange pawprints that matched no living animal that the Smithsonian Institution could identify turned up in the wet mud after rainstorms. Small animal bones were sometimes found by joggers. Druggies who went into the park after it was closed to do their thing came running out again, claiming that some dark monster was chasing them through the trees, a monster that spoke with a human voice. No one really took the stories seriously. Squirrels and other small animals were easy targets for local hawks and owls. Pranksters could have made those footprints using carved foam or wooden forms. And the druggies…who knew what they saw while they were on something? Still, very soon no one dared to venture into the park. Never at night, and especially not alone.

And so the years passed. Jack severed all contact with the human race, even with his mentor. It was too painful of a memory, of what he'd once been but could never be again. He did discover one new thing about his powers that he had never known before: he could communicate with most of the animals that lived in and around the park. Rabbits and squirrels seemed to be an exception. Those he ate, raw, regretting as he did the necessity of avoiding fire in order not to attract attention. And he waited. For what, he didn't know. Redemption? He didn't think so. He did not doubt his mentor's words that only death would release him from his misery. Even at the worst of times, the older man had never lied to him, or tried to soften any blows. But what then was he waiting for? He could never be sure. Maybe just a reason to hope_  
_

* * *

_Author's Note: I'm almost afraid to begin this story, I freely admit it. After Nightingale and Whisper Plantation, I feel as if my "choice of style" is established as cultural adaptations of Beauty and the Beast. This is sort of a cultural adaptation, but it's also a modern retelling and a superhero story and probably a lot of other things. But thanks to the encouragement from Cywyllog and Aphrodite's Dragon, I decided to go for it. Of course, they had no idea what they were saying when I surveyed them, so I think this will be as much of a surprise to them as it is to everyone else. Or maybe it won't be. They know me pretty well. Anyway, this will be an adventure on a grand scale, and you're all along for the ride! Here we go!_

_SamoaPhoenix9_


	2. Good Men Gone

**Chapter 2**

_Disclaimer: Beauty and the Beast does not belong to me._

_Five Years Later_

"Eriko-chan, time to get up."

That voice. Erika Cavanaugh wished her mother's voice would quit interrupting her dreams so often. Just when they started to get good, of fighting bad guys and saving the world, she had to come back to reality. A reality full of late, bruising nights.

"Eriko, get up. It is past noon," her mother demanded, rapping on the door sharply with her knuckles. Erika groaned and buried her head in her pillow. The response to this was sharp: "_Okinasai_!"

When her mother started speaking Japanese, Erika knew she was in trouble. She rolled out of bed. "I'm up!"

It was too late. Just as she reached her dresser, she was doused with a bucketful of icy water that appeared out of the empty air over her head. "'_Ka-san_!" she wailed, "I was already up!"

"Sorry." Mai Cavanaugh did not sound sorry at all. "Come downstairs when you are dressed. We will run." Her slippered footsteps tapped away down the wooden hall floor.

Erika pulled out a set of dry workout clothes, muttering darkly. Her mother, a veteran superhero of over twenty years, had worked to the point where she needed a disgustingly small amount of sleep each night. Erika, as a more recent graduate of the local superhero academy, had no such luxury. Despite a year's apprenticeship with her mother, she still couldn't get used to the hours.

She checked her appearance in her floor-length mirror, looking for any new developments merely out of habit. Early on in adolescence, she had begun to realize that while healing powers made you useful in childhood scrapes with your friends, it wasn't exactly a practical crimefighting skill. She'd tried everything she could think of to make herself develop extra powers short of sneaking into the nearby National Institute of Health headquarters and modifying one of their radioactive devices for her own purposes. Nothing had worked, though a minor accident in gym class had revealed that she had reflexes almost quick enough to be considered a superpower. Almost, but not quite.

Erika sighed. She looked exactly as she always did: tall for a girl at 5'10" and lanky, with her mother's curl-resistant black hair and her Irish-American father's brilliant green eyes. Standing only in a sports bra and gym shorts, it was obvious that she was in exceptional shape thanks to Mai's disdain for the Academy's fitness program. Erika sighed again and pulled on her shoes and socks and went downstairs to meet her mother, pausing briefly to kiss the small photo of her father in its frame beside her bed.

Mai met her in the kitchen, dressed as she was for running. "I was starting to think you weren't coming," her mother said, her expression unreadable.

"You know I'm always up for a run, _Haha_," Erika answered with a smile, hoping to make peace.

She was rewarded with a smile in return. "Good. Then we take the park trail today. It is hot, and the park trail is shadier. Come on." She led the way out the door.

The park trail was several miles long, passing just along the edge of the largest park in D.C. There had once been trails through the park itself, but they had been closed several years ago. For research, the civilian rumors said. The superheroes of the town knew it had something to do with a hero who had gone bad and was now hiding in the park, but hardly anyone discussed it. Such things were taboo subjects among the tightknit superhero community. It was something Erika had never bothered to question before. But now, as she ran past the trees branching generously over the parkside path, she allowed herself a few spare thoughts. Was there really a superhero gone bad hiding out there? And if so, why had no one just gathered a small force and taken whoever it was out? Rogue former superheroes were dangerous, both to civilians and other superheroes. She turned to ask her mother about it, but there was no one beside her. Squinting into the late spring sun, Erika could barely make out Mai's back, black hair bouncing in its ponytail. Despite a much shorter leg length, her mother was far ahead.

Erika was about to pick up her pace to catch up when a familiar voice called her name. "Hey, Er! Wait up!"

Erika allowed herself a small snort of annoyance before plastering her face into a smile and greeting the two approaching figures who both dressed as she was for running. "Hi, Jerry. Hi, Lyle."

"How've you been?" asked Jerry as he caught up with Erika easily. He flashed her a charming smile from beneath the enigmatic dark glasses that he always wore, and matched his pace to hers.

"Not bad. Pretty busy, though." Erika forced herself to speak civilly. She knew Jerry and his perpetual sidekick Lyle from the Academy. Jerry had been voted "Most Likely to Succeed" their final year. To the outside observer, he was perfect: great looks (he towered over Erika by at least six inches, had flowing red hair and a well-muscled frame from years of toning), great grades in school, and great instinct for the hero business. His powers of x-ray and laser vision were the perfect combination of offence and defense, making him a nearly unbeatable fighter. He'd had girls hanging all over him since practically the day he'd entered the Academy at age seven. But for some reason, close to their graduation and training placement, he'd chosen Erika as the object of his attentions. He had never been one of her favorite people, not with the way he treated the less popular kids at school, and since his sudden decision that they were soulmates he had become even more insufferable to her. Even now he was still finding excuses to "accidentally" run into her. Such as today.

Lyle was another story altogether. For all that Jerry aspired to be mysterious, pretending he needed to wear those sunglasses all the time to protect others from his vision when all they really did was make it impossible to read his expression, Lyle was the real mystery. Lyle had been a latecomer to the school, a transfer from the NYC version of Washington D.C.'s Academy. Everyone knew he must have some sort of powers to be in a school for superheroes, but no one knew what they were. He'd attached himself to Jerry almost upon his arrival, nominally for protection against the kids who like to make those with "lame" powers (such as himself and Erika) a living hell, and there he had stayed. You never saw one without the other, though they could not have been more different: Lyle was small and thin and pale, with dark hair and a face that never seemed to change expression. Jerry was loud and boisterous, loving the limelight, while Lyle rarely spoke.

As she usually did, Erika made her courtesy attempt to get him to converse. "Looking forward to summer, Lyle?"

"Not particularly," was the curt answer.

"I am," Jerry cut in. "Spend your days napping by the pool, and your nights out nabbing the baddies, eh, Eri-ko?" He nudged her in the shoulder.

"We don't have a pool," Erika responded, trying to keep the annoyance from her voice. "And it's _Erika_. Only one person on Earth has permission to use my given name, and you aren't her."

"Your mom. I get it. But, really, Er, I don't understand why you don't use your real name. It's so…Japanese. It's hip."

"My dad called me Erika." Immediately, Erika regretted speaking. She hadn't meant to say something so close to personal with Jerry.

"Your dad's dead. Died heroically in the line of duty, a death we can all aspire to. You should have moved on by now. It's been, what, eight years?" Jerry pointed out blithely.

Erika itched to slap him for saying something so insensitive, but she held herself back. Instead, she channeled her fury into picking up her pace, leaving Jerry and Lyle behind for several minutes. By the time Jerry caught her, he was a little red in the face. "Jeez, Erika, you didn't have to turn on the steam all of a sudden. You've been working out a lot, I can tell. You look good."

Erika did not reply. _If I ignore him, maybe he'll go away,_ she hoped.

"Listen," Jerry said after a moment of silence, "There's a party at Christine Inez's house this evening. Our hours, of course." 'Our hours' was superhero slang for scheduling a gathering so that it did not interfere with the night's work. "I was wondering if maybe you'd like to go with me?"

Erika carefully ran down her list of excuses. She had used so many over the past two years that it was easy to lose track and get repetitive. After a few moments, she said, "I don't think I can. I promised _Haha_ I'd help her look over some of police files about Celina and Berry's murders." This wasn't quite a lie. Celina and Barry had been veteran superheroes in a neighborhood not far from where Erika and Mai ran their patrols. Their deaths, almost exactly a month apart, had seemed suspicious enough for Mai to check them out.

Jerry made a scoffing noise. "We superheroes die all the time, Er. Comes with the job. It's not that big of a deal. You can miss one evening's work with your mama."

"Superheroes usually aren't murdered in broad daylight, as their alter egos," Erika pointed out. "If _Haha_ thinks it's important enough to take a look, then I do too. Sorry, Jerry, maybe some other time."

Jerry grumbled a little, but there was not much he could say to that. Mai was formidable enough for him not to risk tangling with her. He knew that if he seriously messed with her daughter in any way, he would probably be hit by his own personal tidal wave. Erika wished, for the millionth time, that she'd inherited her mother's family's affinity for water. Then maybe Jerry wouldn't consider her such an easy target. Maybe then she'd feel less like a civilian masquerading as a hero…

Even her excellent reflexes weren't enough to keep her from stumbling over the fallen branch she'd failed to notice in her distraction. They did prevent her from doing more in her fall than scraping her palms and one knee on the blacktop pavement.

"Wow, Erika, that was quite a fall. Are you all right?" asked Jerry, extending a hand to help her up from her hands and knees.

"Give me a second to heal it and I will be," answered Erika, taking the offered hand without thinking. Before she realized what had happened, she had been yanked to her feet and was in far too much contact with Jerry than she'd ever wanted to be.

"Do you want me to kiss it and make it better?" he asked, wrapping one arm around her to pin her and examining her palms closely.

"I can handle it," snapped Erika, shoving him away and biting back a yelp of pain as she was forced to use her hurt palms to do so. Faint green light radiated from her hands and knee as she called on her powers to repair the damage. Within seconds, the light faded, leaving only a faint trace of dried blood on her knee to indicate she'd ever been hurt. "See," she said, holding both hands palm outward to show Jerry, "I'm fine."

If Jerry was put off by her second rejection of him, he didn't show it. He looked as though he were about to say something, however, when fortunately Lyle came jogging up from where he'd been lagging behind. "What's up?" he asked in his abrupt way.

"I fell," answered Erika before Jerry could give his own version of what had happened. "Tripped over that branch. No permanent harm done."

"Oh." Lyle kept going without further comment. Jerry and Erika stared after him for a few seconds, then looked at each other.

"Here," said Jerry. "Let me at least do this to make you feel better." He raised his shielding glasses, revealing eyes that were so dark a red they looked almost black except in the brightest sunlight. The irises began to glow golden red, like a heating coil in a toaster, and the branch burst into flames and disintegrated. The glow faded. Jerry winked at Erika, put his glasses back on his nose, and started after Lyle. Erika snorted, though not loud enough to be heard. Jerry never missed an opportunity to show off his powers.

Something caught the corner of her eye, and she frowned. For a moment, she thought she saw a flicker of movement in amongst the heavy brush under the park's trees. Shading her eyes, she peered closer, hoping to catch a glimpse of a squirrel or rabbit or bird. She saw nothing. Shrugging, she turned to catch up with Jerry, Lyle, and eventually, her mother._

* * *

_

_Author's Note: Of course by this point I don't have to explain who everyone is. I enjoyed incorporating Japanese into Nightingale so much that I decided to make Erika's mother Japanese so that they could exchange a few words in their conversations. Translations: _Okinasai_ means "wake up!" '_Ka-san_ is a clipping of the standard Japanese word for mother (which is O-ka-san), and _Haha _is a more specific, informal title meaning 'my mother,' (colloquial English: Mom or Mama)_

_SamoaPhoenix9_


	3. Watching Me

**Chapter 3**

_Disclaimer: I do not own Beauty and the Beast, or anything else that belongs to Disney._

Jack watched as the black-haired girl turned away to continue her run. Sometimes, on days when his depression was not as deep as usual, he would come to the edge of the park where he could see people on the path. It was always interesting, watching them go about their daily lives with such innocent abandon. Today he'd gotten more than he bargained for.

He hadn't noticed the stick on the path, any more than the black-haired runner or her tall red-haired companion had. It had been a bit of a shock, watching the girl fall so unexpectedly. His own stomach had lurched in sympathy. But then she caught herself so quickly that it seemed unnatural—or at least it would have, had any civilian been watching. To Jack, it meant a small alarm bell went off in his head. This girl and her companion were not ordinary runners, then: they had to be superheroes, or at least superheroes-in-training. They appeared a bit young to be full working heroes, but since it was the middle of a weekday in late May they had to at least be graduates of the Academy. They didn't look familiar, but he had to admit he'd paid little attention to the students more than a year or two below him. He hadn't seen anyone from his old world in years, not since his self-imposed banishment. He continued to watch silently.

The boy helped the girl up and pulled her in close. Jack thought: _They must be boyfriend and girlfriend. Only a guy secure in his status with the chosen object of his affections would touch a woman in that way without seeming like a real jerk._ But then she shoved him away, and it wasn't in play either; Jack could tell from experience that she was really angry and not just leading her companion on. Jack allowed himself a small toothy grin. A real jerk, then. In his day, he'd never been so clumsy.

The girl glanced around in an instinctive way. Jack knew that glance; it was a casual check for civilians before doing something power-related. You got so used to that check that you didn't even think about it by the time you graduated from the Academy. Sure enough, there was a faint green glow around the girl's palms and one knee where she'd caught herself from her fall. She must be a healer, in addition to the reflexes.

Another boy, smaller and dark-haired, came jogging up to the pair and paused to ask a question. He looked like the sort who spent his days inside in front of a computer screen instead of working out, but to Jack's experienced eyes he was still in decent shape nonetheless. He stayed only briefly before going on.

The redhead and the dark-haired girl looked at each other. The boy said something, then raised his sunglasses. Jack couldn't see what he did from his angle, but his sensitive nose smelled woodsmoke. So the boy had laser vision. He was an idiot to use it so openly, especially to flirt with a girl who was obviously uninterested.

Jack couldn't tell whether the derisive snort he heard was his own or that of the girl on the path. She must be even less interested in the redhead than he'd first thought, or she would have at least appreciated a gesture that to the neutral observer might have appeared flattering. Jack half considered following her, staying hidden in the trees, of course. This girl had some spirit, to resist the advances of her handsome friend. And she was the first person with powers he'd seen in a long time, certainly the first person on the path who had piqued his interest this much in months. He shifted slightly, easing a cramp in one leg while he waited for her to move on.

And girl froze. Her eyes flickered through the trees. She didn't seem nervous or frightened, but she was definitely peering as if she expected to see something in the park. Jack stayed as still as a statue. He doubted very much that she was expecting to see anything like him. After a moment, she shrugged and jogged after her two companions.

Jack watched her go, allowing himself a few unguarded seconds to admire the way her black hair caught the light. Then he shook himself. Following her was now out of the question. With quick eyes like hers, in all likelihood she _would_ see him hidden in the trees, and then all the secrecy he'd built up over the years would be ruined. But he had no heart to stay and watch for more ordinary people on the path, either. He had seen the un-ordinary again and it reminded him how much he was missing. He decided to head home for the day.

Jack's home had once been a picnic area, complete with broken-down benches and tables and rusted-out grills. There was also an abandoned concrete structure, intended as a pavilion, that provided some relief from the elements. Jack had improved it by piling up the largest fallen tree branches he could find against three and a half of the open sides and then planting vines at their base to grow over them. This held them firmly in place and made them even more wind resistant, and had the added benefit of making the pavilion much less of an eyesore. Jack limped inside and lay down on one of the few unbroken tables. His shoulder, the one that contained the bullet, throbbed. It had been acting up again in the past week.

_Ah, you're back,_ came a silky voice from the entrance to the pavilion.

Jack raised his horned head a little. "Oh, it's you," he said to the coyote who stood there. Jack had been just as surprised as nearly everyone else in D.C. to find that coyotes, symbolic creatures of the Old West night, were slowly moving in and finding the city to their liking. There was a whole pack of them sharing Jack's forest now. They were as cunning as the stories said, and though occasionally they had their disagreements, in general they coexisted peacefully with Jack. Sometimes they brought him leftovers from the outside world as well as tidbits of news.

_I'm glad you're here,_ said the head of the pack, whose name was Graynose. _We've come across something unusual in the southern part of the park._

"Something that requires my time?" asked Jack, sitting up to peer curiously at the coyote.

_Yes. We do not know what to make of it._ Pause. _It is a human thing, of that we are sure. We can smell it, as will you when you see it. That is part of the puzzle, because the smell is mostly human, but not entirely. You understand human ways better than we, so we came to ask you to look and see if there is anything significant in it._

"How can something be mostly human?" Jack asked, but he got up to follow Graynose anyway.

_ You tell me_, Graynose replied with a coyote grin at Jack's growl of annoyance.

"I'm not mostly human; it's the other way around." Then Jack frowned as an idea occurred to him. "You might have just answered your own question."

_What?_

"I have a hunch. You'll see. Show me where this place is."

They made their way carefully to the southern end of the park, which took about half an hour on foot. The rest of the pack was waiting at the edge of the clearing, which was smaller than Jack's by about half.

_Oh, good, you brought him,_ said Foxtail, Graynose's mate and chief female of the pack.

It felt nice to be wanted, even if by a coyote pack. "I hope you won't be sorry you did," Jack said. He stepped into the clearing.

Immediately, he stiffened. There were scents all over the clearing from the previous night at the latest. At least one was human, there was no mistaking it. But Graynose hadn't been exaggerating, either: the smell was not quite right for it to be entirely human. Jack examined the footprints in the mud, something he doubted the coyotes would have known to do. Sure enough, there were two individual sets of non-animal prints. One was entirely human, though with the extra underlying scent to them that Jack had long ago learned meant the person had powers. That scent was very distinctive, though he couldn't tell what sort of power it was. The other set…

"Hmmm." Jack rumbled in the back of his throat.

_What is it?_ asked Graynose.

"It looks to me like you've got a shapeshifter on your hands. Er, paws."

_A shapeshifter? Like you once were?_

Jack ignored the sudden throb from his shoulder, the one that contained the bullet. "Like me, but not the same form. I can't tell from the prints exactly what this man—or woman—becomes. I do know this isn't my former mentor, though. I'd recognize his scent."

_The prints?_ Graynose came forward to peer at them, followed by the rest of his pack. _I never thought to look at them. What do they mean?_

"See this?" Jack indicated to the circled pack. "See how the human print sort of seems to curl in on itself? Here, and here?" he pointed with a clawed paw. "And smell how the human scent fades?"

_Yes._

"This is where whoever it is transformed. Some sort of animal with paws, but that's all I can tell. I'd have to follow the tracks to see where they lead."

With a yip, Graynose and another of his male pack members were off, following the transformed tracks. Two of the others slipped into the trees after the human ones.

"Useful," Jack commented to Foxtail, who had remained behind with the rest. "Your people can travel much quicker and track much more easily through the forest than I can."

_Size isn't everything, _replied Foxtail, baring her teeth in a grin.

Both pairs of coyotes came back fairly quickly. _The shapeshifter's prints leave the park heading south, _reported Graynose, _And of course we can't leave the shelter of the trees in broad daylight. The humans are uneasy enough with our presence at night._

_The human prints exit the park more towards the southeast, _added Smokeface, the dominant coyote from the other tracking pair. _We also could not follow them._

"Likely they'll come back here, though," Jack pointed out. The coyotes all turned to look at him. "I've had some…experience with things like this," he continued. He'd had trouble explaining to them in too much detail about his life before he came to live in the park. "It seems to me that these humans, whoever they were, wanted to do something away from prying eyes and ears."

He could see the coyotes thinking about this. _And since no humans ever venture into this park, they thought they'd be safe here, _Graynose said thoughtfully.

"Exactly," answered Jack. "And they'll probably come here again, since nothing stopped them before." He grinned fiercely. This was exactly what he'd been longing for since seeing the superpowered boy and girl on the path. "I'll come back here at dark, to watch. And every night after until someone shows. This time, whoever came here won't be so lucky."

Graynose and his pack grinned with him, showing their pointed teeth. _This time, we will be waiting for them. And they will know what it means to encroach on our territory without permission._

* * *

_Author's Note: There really are coyotes moving in on Washington D.C., at least according to the newspapers. I live about 45 minutes from the city, and it is true that we have seen animals we think _might_ be coyotes when driving around at night a few times. I don't know how likely it is that there might be a whole pack in one of the parks somewhere. I didn't see any reason why not to include them, especially since they seem like the sort of animal who might be more prone to talk to Jack. Hope you're all enjoying so far!_

_SamoaPhoenix9_


	4. It's Gonna Take a Superman

**Chapter 4**

_Disclaimer: Much as I might wish to, I do not own Beauty and the Beast._

Mai was stretching out on the front porch of their small house when Erika finally arrived, having at last shaken Jerry and Lyle at the turnoff onto Jerry's street.

"Did you have fun with your friends?" Mai asked. Her voice was neutral, but Erika could tell she was annoyed.

"Not really. _Haha_, you know I would have worked harder if I hadn't been waylaid by Jerry and his little sidekick. And you know better than anyone that I'd much rather throw up from pushing myself too hard than spend any time with them." Erika answered breathlessly as she began her own cool-down stretches.

A tiny smile tugged at the corners of Mai's mouth. "All right. I will be in the gym to start when you're ready." She disappeared inside the house.

Erika groaned. Mai's training regimen was a brutal mix of cardio work and lifting. Knowing that her mother put herself through it for at least an hour a day never softened the blow for Erika, who only did it when Mai forced her. Erika's natural healing powers had given her an extra edge in gym class at the Academy because she could immediately fix any pain or stiffness, but her mother forbade her to use them when she worked out at home. As a result, Erika had bulked up considerably since graduation. That didn't mean she had to enjoy the process.

Mai's face appeared through the screen door. "Training is what keeps you alive in the field, Eriko-chan. You know that."

"Not if it kills you first," Erika muttered, but without heat to her voice. She knew her mother worked her hard because she wanted Erika to stay alive when she went out on her own. Especially since her father's death.

Mai was feeling generous. She only worked Erika for half an hour before sending her out of their tiny home gym to take a shower.

"Don't you want the shower first?" Erika asked, trying to reciprocate her mother's generosity for not working her until she didn't think she could stand upright.

"No, but thank you," answered Mai, wiping the sweat from her face with a towel, "I finish my own workout first." And she closed the door.

Erika shrugged. Her mother could create her own shower anytime, anywhere, if she wanted to, but she took the discipline of only using her powers when necessary seriously. Occasionally waking her daughter up with a drenching bath of cold water was one thing, but showering any place she pleased would create a whole host of problems: constantly wet floors, for one, which invited mold and rot and all sorts of other household disasters that superheroes maintaining a cover did not have time to deal with. Not to mention what would happen if one of the neighbors happened to glance through a window at the wrong time. Erika grinned at the thought, and went to the linen closet to hunt up a towel.

An hour later, Mai finally emerged from the bathroom to find Erika polishing off the leftover shrimp tempura from the night before. Only when her mother had fixed her own lunch, a bowl of rice sprinkled with tuna slivers, did Erika venture, "_Okasan_? What's on the schedule for tonight?"

"Hmmm." Mai considered, picking up her chopsticks. "I was going to look over the case files from the police station about Celina and Barry this afternoon. You can help me with that if you want, see if your education in spotting criminal patterns is up to the task. If we see something worth the time, we will check it out on our rounds tonight."

"I'll look over the stuff. I told Jerry I was helping you with that case anyway." Her mother gave her a look. Erika protested, "He asked me out again! I had to think of something."

"Eriko, you have to turn him down straight. Otherwise he will keep coming back. I would think you have learned this by now," Mai said.

"_Haha_, you don't know him like I do. He wouldn't hear it. He'd think I was leading him on, or something. I keep hoping he'll give up on me, but it hasn't happened yet." Erika snorted. "I really don't know what he sees in me, anyway. Any idiot can see we're all wrong for each other."

Mai's lips twitched. "He is an idiot, then. And I hope for his sake he realizes it someday before he dies."

Erika smiled and turned back to her food. Her mother might come across to an outsider as unusually tough and unyielding on her daughter, but Erika knew that Mai loved her fiercely. Their bond was unshakable, as they had turned to one another for comfort and mainstay when Erika's father had been killed. Even when Erika was living at school they had kept in close contact. It was rare for two people who did not share similar powers to be partnered in a mentorship in the year following graduation from the Academy, but the school's board of directors had decided to make an exception because of the bond Mai and Erika shared. Besides, there was no one else with abilities like Erika's that the board knew of. Her father had been the last.

"_Haha_?" she asked tentatively, before she could rethink her question. "Is it true what the board said at my graduation? Do Daddy and I really have 'throwback' powers?"

Her mother frowned, a chopstick-full of rice halfway to her mouth. "If there is such a thing," she sniffed. "I for one do not buy labeling these days. Powers are powers; there is no 'modern' or 'throwback,' in my opinion. It is true that certain powers, such as healing and shapeshifting, were far more common hundreds of years ago."

"Why?"

Her mother's frown deepened. "Eriko-chan, you're far too old not to know about witch hunts. People with those sorts of powers were almost all killed by the 1800's. Peter--your father--'s family was an exception; they were smart enough to make sure that anyone who showed the talent got some sort of official medical training. Even if they never became doctors, they could always explain away a 'miraculous' healing. It kept them alive to pass the talent to others."

"Oh." Erika thought about this, running it by what she already knew. Shapeshifting was rare, but less so than healing. There had been one or two shapeshifters while she was at school that she had known personally, and probably a few others she hadn't. There were no other healers.

Mai eyed her daughter. "I know you think your powers are unimportant to a profession like ours. But, trust me, there will come a time when you are glad you have them and not something destructive." Erika stared. She could count the times on one hand when her mother had opened up to her in this way. Mai smiled; there was a bitter edge to it. "You don't know how much I wished I had Peter's powers as he lay dying. If I had, he might be here with us today."

"Or maybe not," Erika said, but she was blinking away her own tears. "His own powers couldn't save him."

"Ah, Eriko-chan, you are right. We must stop playing what-might-have-been and live in the present. Are you ready to look at those files?"

Erika nodded, glad of the distraction. Both of them picked up their food and carried it into Mai's office to begin work. Neither of them brought up their previous discussion again.

To anyone else, the work would have been mind-numbing. It was hours of sorting through police files of witness testimony, forensics reports, and even the findings of the private investigator the superhero community always hired when one of their own was killed, hunting for patterns. This was Mai's specialty, and when she got going she would notice nothing else but the papers and her own notes for very long time. Erika had taken classes at school to prepare her for this, and she had helped her mother with lighter cases before, but the sheer volume of papers on this case had made her gulp when she first beheld them. Her mother did not even seem daunted. She handed Erika a stack of paper, a notepad and a pencil and then turned to her own work. For the next few hours, the only sounds in the room were the shuffling of paper and the scribbling of pencils.

Erika took a stretch break after about two hours, rolling her neck to get rid of the kinks. She glanced out the window and was startled to see how much the sun had moved. The work, tedious as it was, was consuming.

Mai looked up at her absently. "Find anything?"

"If they weren't superheroes, I'd say both would qualify as any one of the random murders that happen in the city every day. Barry was killed in a holdup of the camera store he part-owned on 21st street, and Celina in a drive-by shooting where the alleged target wasn't even her. The only patterns I can come up with is that they were both killed with guns, a few blocks from each other, under circumstances the police would be apt to find unsuspicious. Yet, with their training, they should have been able to avoid the situations entirely."

"I was hoping you would see that," Mai said, pleased. She stood up, flexing her fingers.

"Did you find anything worth noting?" asked Erika, massaging her right hand to banish the cramps.

"Only what Corrine has already noted in her report," Mai answered, naming the superheroes' private investigator. "Celina was way out of her jurisdiction, with no clear reason for going there even in daylight. She told no one where she was going, another unusual move. I met her when your father and I were dating. She struck me as a very cautious girl, always covering her back."

"And Barry?"

"He was killed at close range, with armor-piercing rounds. It might seem a random move to the police, but it seems to me, and to Corrine, that someone came prepared." Mai waved a faxed piece of paper covered with Corrine's neat writing.

"What were his powers?" asked Erika, taking the paper and skimming it.

"Shapeshifter. Other form was a kind of cross between a rhino and a bear." Mai took the paper back.

"And it'd be kinda hard to get through that skin with regular bullets. I think…" Erika stopped suddenly as an idea occurred to her. "But why armor-piercing? Surely whoever killed him didn't think he'd be stupid enough to shift in broad daylight, in the middle of his own store? If this was deliberate."

Mai frowned. "You are right." She rifled through the stack of papers and came up with the forensics report. She sat down again, rereading it with a wrinkle of concentration between her delicate eyebrows.

"Are we going to check this out tonight?" asked Erika, returning to her own stack.

"Short of breaking into Barry's old shop, which of course we would only do in a true emergency, we can't look at that tonight," Mai pointed out. "We will see tomorrow. But I will look at the place where Celina died tonight, see if there is anything the police and Corrine might not have noticed. It can't hurt."

"'I'?" Erika repeated, startled. "What will _I_ be doing, then?"

"Making the rounds, as usual." Mai held up her hand as Erika opened her mouth to indignantly protest. "Eriko-chan, _kiite kudasai._ Your year with me is almost up, and you will be required to spend at least a year on your own before you can work with a permanent partner. This gives a perfect opportunity for you to see—without too much pressure—whether you are capable of handling yourself. I will be on the communicator if you really are in a tight spot, but I doubt that will happen. You are ready for this. I know it." She smiled at her daughter, then turned back to scrutinizing the forensics report.

Erika sat back in her chair. Her first solo run. Many superheroes-in-training looked forward to 'going solo,' glad to get away from the apron strings of their mentors and teachers, but Erika had always felt some nerves about it in the back of her mind. With very little help from her powers, she had to resort to travel by ordinary means—walking and climbing. But then she grinned as something new occurred to her. Corrine, the private investigator, had no powers and did just as good a job as the superpowered people did. And if Corrine could do it, then surely Erika, with the slight edge of her reflexes, could do rounds just as well without anyone covering her. Mai was right. Erika did need this test to see if she was ready to go solo. And if her mother thought she was ready, Erika was inclined to believe her. Sugar-coating anything to make someone else feel better was just not in Mai's nature, as her daughter knew from a lifetime's experience.

She picked up the next paper from her pile, looking at it without really seeing it. Tonight would be an exciting one, if nothing else. Was she ready to face it? She was pretty sure she was.

_

* * *

_

_Translations: Okasan means Mother and Kiite kudasai means Please listen._

_SamoaPhoenix9_


	5. The Storm and the Flood

**Chapter 5**

_Disclaimer: Ha! Like I own Beauty and the Beast. I wish._

After a late dinner, the two women prepared for their night's work. Mai tapped a few buttons on a keypad cleverly concealed in the molding beside a small closet door in her bedroom, then put a thumb to a certain spot on the door itself so that the hidden technology could scan her thumbprint. The door sprang open with a hiss like an airlock. Inside were Mai's superhero uniform, the black jumpsuit and mask Erika wore as a trainee who had not officially picked a name and costume, and their crimefighting equipment. Mai tossed her daughter the jumpsuit, worrying as she did if she had made the right decision in making Erika to patrol on her own. Erika was competent, thorough, and well-trained, and Mai knew that she was ready for the challenge. The question at this point was whether Mai was ready to let her go.

"You know," Erika said, breaking into Mai's thoughts, "I've gotten really attached to black this past year. Maybe I'll just keep this thing as my uniform when I go solo." Mai turned just as her daughter, who had already changed, spun on the ball of one foot to show off the outfit.

"You want to look like a trainee all your life?" asked Mai, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, no," Erika admitted, looking sheepish. "Maybe I'll just jazz it up a little with a green stripe, or something like that. Nothing too flashy. I work best in the shadows, since I actually have to work to sneak up on people." She began rooting around in the closet, extracting the equipment she'd need.

Mai watched her a little regretfully. Her little Eriko-chan had been a dreamer as a child, always off on imaginary adventures with her playmates and making up stories of the great deeds she'd do when she was old enough to become a superhero and protect her town. You never knew what she'd say next. What had happened to that little girl? Circumstances, and, Mai suspected, spending too much time with her own unbending practicality, had changed the child dreamer into a cool-headed realist on the brink of womanhood.

"What did you always say you wanted for your uniform when you were a child?" she asked as she donned her own uniform. It was essentially a wetsuit, patterned with waves in different shades of blue, complete with a hood that hid her hair and covered half of her face.

"I think it was a neon-green jumpsuit, with a cape in all the colors of the rainbow. And bright orange knee-high boots," Erika recalled with a laugh. She shuddered. "I would have looked like a giant leprechaun from one of Daddy's stories. Good thing I grew out of that."

"Well, don't commit to all-black yet. You may change your mind before it's time to choose."

"Yes, _Typhoon_," her daughter said with a roll of her eyes. "Well, you're in uniform," she pointed out when Mai glared.

"We waste too much time talking," she declared, leading the way out of the room. She heard Erika shut the closet door and follow. "Remember," Mai told her daughter as they paused in front of the secret trapdoor built into the floor of their home gym, "I will be with you for the first fifteen minutes or so, and then we will go our separate ways. I will follow Celina's trail based on what we gathered this afternoon, and you will do the rounds as usual. Reach me on the communicator if you need me."

"I _know_," Erika said a little testily, slapping her black-gloved hands together nervously. "You don't need to remind me!"

"All right. Let's go then." She lifted the trapdoor and dropped inside. The tunnel was only used by Mai and Erika, as it led from their house to a secret entrance in the nearest subway Metro stop. It threw off people from tracking them home and learning their real identities. With practiced ease they slid through the darkness, neither one making a sound. At last, they reached the place where their tunnel met the station, tucked underneath a set of concrete stairs. Erika poked her head cautiously out to scout around. She turned back and nodded to Mai to tell her that the coast was clear. The Metro station was usually deserted at this time of night, but it never hurt to be cautious. Without a sound, and with the help of the specialized looping tape that had been installed years ago into the Metro surveillance system and was activated by a button on Mai's utility belt to make sure no one caught them on camera, they slipped out of the station and into the night.

They ran into their first trouble not five minutes after leaving the station. The miniature radio tuned to the police band inside their hoods crackled to life, proclaiming that a bank robbery was taking place in their district and requesting backup.

"Then we'll give them backup," Erika said, after the report was complete.

"Patrolling can wait," Mai agreed. "Let's go!" They started to run. Erika glanced at Mai, who nodded. Erika snagged a trash can lid as she ran by it, holding it carefully under one arm to prevent wind resistance. When they were both ready, Mai called to the water in the air, causing it to take on its liquid state in an ankle-deep wave moving faster than any human could run. She simply stepped onto it and rode it as she would a moving walkway in an airport, but Erika, who could not directly stand on moving water without falling, dropped the trashcan lid and utilized it as a surfboard as soon as she felt her toes getting wet. In this way they managed the trip to the bank in a matter of seconds. The water under their feet dissipated with a slight hiss, and they were standing on the edge of a small crowd that had gathered to watch the proceedings.

The block where the bank was located was siphoned off from the rest of the neighborhood with police tape, and the area inside was swarming with officers, squad cars with lights blazing, and even a few SWAT vans. Mai and Erika, when they arrived, simply slid under the tape and kept walking as if they had a right to be there.

"Hey, who let civilians back here?" growled a woman in a SWAT uniform. She took Erika's elbow firmly and started to drag her to the perimeter, reaching for Mai's shoulder as she did so.

"What's going on?" came a male voice from behind the woman. Mai smiled in relief as a powerfully-built black man wearing a badge that proclaimed him a sergeant came striding forward. "Well?" he said when the SWAT woman didn't answer right away.

"Removing civilians from a potentially hazardous situation," she said, setting her jaw.

"I see. Well, these two are all right. Special forces. But thank you for your willingness to protect our populace."

The SWAT woman, fortunately, knew a dismissal when she heard it. She let go of Erika and disappeared back into the crowd without a word, though her face proclaimed that she wasn't happy about it.

"Sorry about that, Typhoon, Trainee," the sergeant said to Mai and Erika once the woman was out of earshot. "You know how it is with SWAT. They don't see the need for superheroes the way we regular ground forces do, and I didn't want to waste time arguing."

"That's all right, Sergeant Williams," Mai answered. "What's the situation?" The sergeant, like most of the local DCPD, had had his life saved by Typhoon at least once, and had been working with her closely for most of his years on the force, as their jurisdictions coincided. He'd accepted Erika as Typhoon's apprentice, addressing her as 'Trainee' since she didn't have an official superhero name yet and he didn't know either of their real identities.

"The situation's not great, but not bad, either," Williams was saying now. "Group of guys busted in about half an hour ago. They have all the night staff in there as hostages. Good thing they didn't decide to strike during the bank's operating hours or we'd have customers to save as well as employees. Hostage Negotiation's been at it for a few minutes, with no luck."

"How many of them are there, and what are they demanding in exchange for the hostages?" Erika asked in a level voice.

Williams raised his eyebrows at her, but answered, "Maybe 15 guys all in black with black masks. They want a quarter of a million per hostage out of the bank vault, so 2 million, all in tens and twenties."

"Does this branch store that much?" Erika said, surprised. Mai resisted the urge to smile at her in approval. She sounded so professional!

"Easily," was Williams' reply. "These guys came prepared. At least one of them's an experienced hacker. He shut down the security system, including all the cameras. The only reason we knew anything was wrong was one of the night guards managed to push an alert button. We believe he's been shot, but there's no way to tell how many people are still alive or hurt in there."

Abruptly, the walkie-talkie on his hip crackled to life. "Hostage Negotiation has failed. Repeat, Hostage Negotiation has failed. We have been informed that we have ten minutes or the perps will start shooting hostages."

Williams swore and started towards the building. Mai stopped him with a firm hand on his chest. "Let us handle this. Come, Trainee." They set off towards the building at as brisk a pace as they could manage, sliding through the milling crowd of law enforcement with practiced ease. "Well? What should be our approach?" Mai said to her daughter.

"If these guys came this prepared, it's possible they know either you or both of us are coming," Erika pointed out. "But if there are people hurt inside, I need to get in there as soon as possible and start healing before it's too late. What we need is something to draw the robbers away from the hostages."

"Leave that to me. I'll go up on top. Give me five minutes, then go right in the main door. Expect to deal with some opposition; I doubt I will draw all fifteen."

"Is five minutes enough time?" Erika asked worriedly.

"It must be. Otherwise, we will have SWAT on our hands as well, and more people could get hurt."

Erika's face twitched, and Mai could tell she was trying to hide a grimace. She didn't like the situation any more than her daughter, but there was nothing either of them could do about it. They each gave one another a short nod, showing that they understood their jobs, and trotted off in opposite directions.

Mai quickly discovered that there was no side of the building that was not within view of someone. That was as it should be; she would have been disappointed if the police were lax in their duties at such a time. However, it made her job that much harder. Then she discovered an unexpected boon: a rusted-out fire escape, tucked next to an addition to the building. It would cover her ascent to all but one policeman, who also happened to be a local who knew her. He winked to let her know she was safe. Mai smiled back, then made her way over to the metal escape and called up a small, spinning disc of water to raise her to the first level. With practiced ease she slid up the iron bars to the third and top floor. From there, it was easy to find an unlatched window and make her way inside. No alarms sounded, and Mai smiled. In disabling the security system, the robbers had let their own downfall in.

She looked around the darkened room: an office of some kind. The door into the rest of the building was shut, and from behind it Mai heard voices shouting. Hopefully they didn't belong to anyone in SWAT. She slid open the door and peered into the hallway, which was lined with identical offices. This floor appeared deserted, and the voices were coming from the stairwell. Silently Mai made her way to the stairs and slid down them. The shouting died down into silence just as she poked her head out into this second hallway.

These robbers were smart. They'd proved that over and over. They knew better than to turn on any lights and let the police outside know which rooms they had holed up in. Mai pushed a button on her belt and went to night vision in her goggles. Each of the three larger offices on this level she was occupied, she could now see, with maybe four hostages seated on the floor and two people standing—their guards. That accounted for all the hostages and six of the fifteen robbers. The rest must be elsewhere in the building. Erika needed as much time as possible to get up here, and Mai doubted the guards would budge at any distracting noises from in the hall. She was about to take a step forward when she was seized from behind. Something stung against her neck

"We thought you'd come, Typhoon," the man holding her said in her ear. Mai rolled an eye around until she saw what he'd hit her with—a tazer. She went cold. Erika had been right; this gang had come prepared. While it couldn't disable her as it would a civilian, one shot from a tazer shorted out her connection with water for several hours, leaving her unable to summon her powers. She could only hope that they weren't prepared for Erika, too.

The man hustled her downstairs to the open main lobby of the bank. Mai counted seven men on alert. With the one who held her, that accounted for all the robbers. They all turned involuntarily to see what was coming out of the stairwell—Typhoon and the man who'd captured her. At that moment, as if on cue, Erika entered through the main doors. The two men guarding it never had a chance. They were disarmed and unconscious before they could turn their heads around to face the girl in black. The others opened fire, but Erika had already ducked behind a desk.

Mai came to life, twisting in the grip of the man who held her. Like her daughter, she had more than just powers on her side: a wide variety of armed and unarmed combat training. Beginning with her former captor, she systematically took out three of the gunmen, allowing Erika a few moments to dash around and up the staircase towards the hostages.

SWAT entered the scene then, guns at the ready. Mai followed Erika: without her powers she was far too vulnerable in a firefight to be of any use to conventional law enforcement.

Erika was waiting at the top of the stairs. "Are you all right?" she whispered.

Mai rubbed the stinging spot on her neck. "Tazed." Erika winced in sympathy as her mother added, "You were right. They were prepared for me, at least. But now, we have a more important job to do. Let's free the hostages."

As it turned out, the job wasn't as difficult as they had anticipated. The sound of guns blazing from downstairs had attracted the guards' attention, and it was little work for Mai and Erika to draw them out two at a time and handle them before any shots could be fired.

Ten of the twelve hostages came cautiously out into the hall.

"It's all right," Mai reassured them in her most official voice, "You're safe now."

"Is anyone hurt?" asked Erika quickly.

"They shot Steve. He's the one that sounded the alarm," one of the women guards whispered. Her khaki pants were ragged and far too short: probably torn for bandages.

"Is he still alive?"

"Yes. Samantha's with him now, trying to stop the bleeding." The woman led them into one of the rooms, where a heavyset female guard knelt over a thinner man. Both of them clutched desperately at his left abdomen, but rivulets of blood were sliding from between their fingers and the strips of cloth they'd used to cover the wound.

"Look out," said Erika, edging the woman aside. "Let me." She replaced the woman's hands with her own, already shining green with healing power. The man groaned and collapsed against the floor; both of his fellow hostages muffled their gasps of horror. Mai gripped their shoulders to keep them back. After a few moments, the man relaxed visibly, and Mai knew her daughter's work was done. Erika sat back against a nearby desk, her face paler in dim light from a window. She nodded at Mai to let her know she was fine. Getting large wounds such as gunshots out of the critical stage took some of her own energy. She only needed a few minutes to recoup. Mai resisted the urge to hover like a worried mother and instead watched Erika's patient.

He opened his eyes blearily, and winced.

"Steve?" one of the women said, kneeling beside him.

"He'll be all right." Erika rasped. "He should be hospitalized, and he'll hurt for a long time, same as any gunshot victim, but I got the bleeding to stop. He'll live." She leaned forward, offering something small and metal in her palm to the victim. "Do you want this? As evidence?"

The man squinted at what she held, then smiled slightly. "Thank you," he whispered, holding out a hand. Erika placed the bullet gently into it and closed his fingers around it. Then she looked at Mai, who helped her to her feet.

"We should go," Mai said softly as she led Erika to the door. "Before the media arrives. We'll never get out of here otherwise." Erika nodded, and they left the way Mai had come: the fire escape.

They sat down on a park bench several blocks away from the still-wailing sirens to rest for a few minutes. "I wish I could have healed him completely," Erika commented after a moment. "I have the power, and that poor man is going to hurt for awhile. I got the bullet out, cauterized everything, restored some lost blood, and made it look as if the shot wasn't as bad as it was, but a gunshot wound is still a gunshot wound."

"You know why you cannot do complete healings on civilians," Mai answered. "For one, if a man is shot, he is shot. It helps the court cases up the charges and doesn't confuse the witnesses' stories. Two, the energy involved would drain you too much, leave you unable to escape afterwards or continue to work, should you need to."

"I know," Erika sighed, leaning back to look at the stars visible between the nearby buildings. "It just seems cold-blooded to me. If we have the power to help, then we should do all in our power, right?"

"You did. You saved his life."

"But I could have done more."

Mai sighed. "We do what we do to help civilians, to keep them safe. But we can never get so wrapped up in one individual that we don't see the bigger picture. It's how you miss things that keep more people alive, down the road. What if three other people had been tonight hurt as badly? Would you not have saved your strength for each of them?"

"I see your point."

"Good." Mai stood up. "Finish the rounds as planned, and then go on to bed."

Erika rose as well, her skin color nearly back to normal. "What about you?"

"I will look at Celina's murder site, as _I_ planned, and then I will go home as well. We both need a rest, after such a night. Hopefully by the time I am finished my powers will be back as well."

They stopped at the street corner that marked the edge of their patrol territory: their parting of the ways. Mai would be going out of their jurisdiction, but she had already called the pair who did patrol it earlier that afternoon and let them know that she would be coming. They would have their own rounds to make, but she was welcome to look around.

Mai wanted to hug her daughter, to tell her she'd be fine on her own, and had she been in civilian dress, she would have. But it would not have been right for superheroes in uniform. They both knew this. All they had time for was a brief pause to look straight into each others' eyes. Pupils locked, and held, for a maximum of a second or two. That one look said everything that needed to be said. Then Mai nodded shortly and started off down the street, leaving Erika behind to stand just on the edge of an illuminating streetlight. Mai offered a brief, silent prayer for her daughter's protection, then drove Erika's safety from her mind to focus on the task at hand.

She found the corner where Celina had died easily enough; like Erika she had memorized a map of D.C. long ago. From a waterproof pouch on her belt she pulled a rolled-up piece of paper: a photo of the crime scene. She studied the picture in the light of a streetlamp conveniently placed overhead, looking back and forth from it to the real site. If she was judging the angle right, then Celina's body would have lain directly in the center of the light's ring. Odd, but there was no way a killer in a drive-by could have orchestrated that. There had been other people shot as well, but only Celina had been killed. That was odd, too, since she had been furthest away from the assumed target. Unless…

Mai looked hard at the picture again, matching the body's position with memorized knowledge of the police report. Glancing around to make certain there was no traffic, she walked the route of the drive-by car, always keeping an eye on where Celina had died. She paused, frowning. From the point where the car's passenger would have begun firing to where it was out of range, the overhead lamp post was almost completely in the way of hitting Celina. It was an impossible shot unless the gunner had some sort of magic bullet. Or the drive-by had been cover fire for the real murder.

The more she investigated this case, the odder it grew. If this was a murder and not just a coincidence, who would want to kill Celina? Or Barry, for that matter? Mai got out of the street and looked at the photo again sadly. But for the pool of blood around her, Celina could have been asleep. Mai looked around, wondering from where the killer could have hidden to shoot so that no one would notice anything more than the gunners in the car. There were few places with such cover, except for the edge of the large park across the street. She and Erika had run by the other side of this park just that morning. Mai went across the street and into the trees, always keeping her face to where Celina had died to make sure she had an unobstructed view.

Her back hit a tree, and she glanced around. Something glittered by her foot, and she bent to peer at it. Bullet casings. Mai had been right. Celina's killer had stood right here.

Closer investigation revealed footprints leading deeper into the park. Mai was not the best tracker, but whoever had made these prints had made no attempt to hide them. Without thinking, she followed.

After about fifteen minutes, she came to a fairly large clearing. Looking around, she saw no one, but a sudden tingle ran up her spine. Twenty years' buildup of instinct told her she was being watched. She started to back out of the clearing when there was a sudden rush and a snarling all around her. Mai reached for her powers, and remembered the effects of the tazer too late. Something slammed into the back of her head with such force that she was thrown bodily to the ground. The last thing she saw was a pair of glittering blue eyes set in a dark, hairy face bending over her. Then the world faded into blackness around her.

_

* * *

_

_Author's Note: This turned into a really long chapter (for me), but I realized that if nothing happened while they were out on patrol it would make for a really short, boring chapter. And who wants to read short and boring? I've watched way too many Saturday morning cartoons and Law and Order episodes in my short time on Earth, as you can probably tell. Hope you enjoyed. _

_SamoaPhoenix9_


	6. After Midnight

**Chapter 6**

_Disclaimer: Beauty and the Beast does not belong to me, or to anyone I know._

As agreed, Graynose and half his pack had met Jack at the clearing as dusk was falling. The other half of the pack went out into the city as usual to scrounge for food; they would bring some leavings back in the morning for those who were standing guard. There was little need to speak as the watchers settled down to wait. Graynose knew, by his powerful sense of smell, where each of his pack members were positioned around the clearing. Additionally, there was the strange smell of Jack, whose scent was like nothing Graynose had ever encountered. Mostly he smelled of a large, fur-covered animal just come into the prime of his life, but underneath all of that was just a hint of human male. That hint had diminished in the two years or so since the pack had first clashed with Jack over a kill. Now it was nearly undetectable unless you knew, as Graynose did, that it was there.

The last rays of the sun ceased to trickle between the tree leaves of the clearing. Twilight settled in, the first stars of early summer appeared, and slowly the few hints of remaining light faded into a faint glow overhead from the lights of the surrounding city. To Graynose's eyes, every movement of a leaf in the slight breeze stood out sharply. His eyes were well suited to a city's evening, where even at its darkest there was always some light. His ancestors had hunted best at twilight, now he and his pack could prowl through the night with little fear even on a new moon.

Graynose settled in contentedly. The spot he had chosen was within a hollowed-out log, the bottom soft from years of decay. He could see everything going on in the clearing and still be comfortable.

He had plenty of time to think as the hours of the night ticked away. His stomach growled; he ignored it, knowing he would have food later. Graynose was no stranger to hunger; he had lived with it for practically all of his young life. The pack of his kithood had been in constant competition with a larger pack in the outskirts of what he had later learned from Jack to call the Washington, D.C. Metro area, and they had always been on the losing end. After Graynose had become Alpha male at the death of the old one, he had elected to lead his new pack further south, into the city itself. It had been a risk, but one that well rewarded them with the rich food leavings that humans did not think fit to eat. The park where they had finally settled suited their needs perfectly, supplementing their scrounged diet with occasional raw meat.

And they had met Jack. An enormous, strange creature who could kill a coyote with one swing of a paw, yet even in their fiercest competition had taken pains not to badly damage any of the pack. A bear-like animal who walked with a slight limp in one front leg, who smelled like a human, spoke as a human, and knew human ways, but was clearly something else entirely. Jack's explanation of his past made little sense to Graynose, but he did understand that Jack had once been a human who could change into an animal at will but was now unable to do so, and had once been a member of a secret human pack with similar abilities.

Graynose lifted his head slightly and sniffed the air. Everything was as it should be. The wind smelled of forest animal and plant, but not of human.

Then Graynose heard it: a slight crash of leaves, and the thump of a human foot. Graynose tensed in his hiding place, his lips curving back to expose sharp teeth in a soundless snarl. He began to edge forward, stalking the sound as he would an unwary squirrel. He kept his movements slow, his silvery gray fur blending in with the dim and dappled forest floor.

A human figure bumbled by, loud and clumsy to Graynose's pricked ears. It passed within feet of him without noticing him. It was looking at something on the ground. _The tracks!_ thought Graynose. This human looked at tracks, just as Jack did. It was using the tracks to find its way back to the clearing.

Out of the corner of his eye, Graynose saw two other coyotes ooze out of the forest cover to flank their chief. Slower, but just as soundless, came Jack, eyes fixed on the dark-haired figure in the clearing. He inched forward, lifting one paw as he went. Graynose saw that he was preparing to knock the human senseless, and approved of the plan: needless killing would serve no purpose.

Abruptly, the wind shifted, driving the human's scent into Graynose's face. His eyes widened as his brain registered what he was smelling. _No, wait!_ he called to Jack.

It was too late. The human woman had heard Graynose's call, though of course had not understood it. She backed right into Jack's swing. The paw did not do as much damage as it might have, but the woman dropped to the forest floor with a groan.

_You should not have done that, _said Graynose as Jack leaned over his victim. The woman's dark, narrow eyes had been open and fixed on him, but very quickly they rolled back into her head and she went limp.

"Why?" asked Jack, turning the woman onto her back as he did so.

_Smell. She is not either of the humans who was here before. For all we know, she may have been hunting them, just as we were._

Jack leaned down to sniff, as Graynose had instructed. "You're right," he finally admitted. "She's not one of the ones who was here before. But she also has powers, like they did. I know that scent. And humans normally don't dress like this." He indicated the woman's skin-fitting clothing, which was made of a strange material Graynose had never encountered before.

_Not even at night?_ the coyote asked._ I know they wear different clothes during the dark hours than they do during the light._

"Not even at night. Only humans with powers dress like this at night,"confirmed Jack. He was now checking the place where his paw had connected with the woman's head. "I hit her harder than I meant to. She won't wake up for awhile." He seemed to consider. "I'll take her to my home…my den. When she wakes up, I'll ask her some questions, find out what she was doing here and what she knows about the other humans."

_We will stay here, and make certain no other humans come to the clearing. I will send someone to let you know if anything happens, _said Graynose. His other pack members had already faded into the trees to take up their watch posts again.

"Thank you," answered Jack. He studied the woman's face intently with his strange, light eyes. For a moment, to Graynose he smelled sad, almost regretful. Then the mood vanished, and the huge bear-creature lifted the unconscious woman up and carried her away, slung onto his back as he trotted on all fours. Graynose noted with his predator's eye that Jack was limping on his bad leg more than usual.

He watched as the creature and his human passenger vanished into the darkness of the forest, then turned and slipped like a shadow back into his own watch post inside the hollow log.

* * *

Meanwhile, Erika was having a surprisingly enjoyable time doing the rounds by herself. It had been nerve-wracking, watching Mai walk away into the darkness and knowing she was on her own, but once she got started it was oddly exhilarating. She slid from shadow to shadow with practiced ease, all senses on high alert for any sign of lawless activity. She knew the route so well she hardly had to devote more than a few brain cells to the task, leaving the rest of her mind free to watch her surroundings for any irregularities. 

A bar at the end of the street was still open, and she could hear unintelligible yells coming from inside. _Somebody's team is winning—or losing_, she thought wryly. Football, basketball, baseball, soccer, it didn't matter: for some, sports just seemed to be an excuse to get drunk and loud. She gave the bar a wide berth but kept an attentive eye on its surroundings. Barfights went beyond the call of duty for superheroes; generally they left such things to regular law enforcement. But drunken men were just as prone to violence when they left the bar, especially towards innocents, and that was where superheroes tended to step in.

Fortunately, this bar seemed to be fairly under control and the shouts were shouts only, not indications of something more serious. Erika moved on.

A few blocks later, she heard the telltale signs of trouble: a man's low, growling voice punctuated every so often with a woman's whimpers. Erika picked up her pace, then paused to listen again at the next corner. The sounds were coming from a small sidestreet to her right. She peered down it and saw exactly what she'd expected: a big blond man had a petite brunette woman backed against the concrete wall.

"No, please," the woman was begging. "I would never do that, not with Harry, or with anyone else. I love you."

The man raised a hand to hit her, and Erika stepped in. She grabbed his upraised arm firmly, saying as she did, "I wouldn't do that if I were you."

"Hey, backoff, kid. This ain't any business of yours," the man snarled, trying to break her grip and failing. He smelled of stale beer, and Erika had to fight not to wrinkle her nose.

"Saving you from assault and battery charges isn't any of my business? I see. I'll just let you get on with it then. But you do that, and I might be forced to go to the police." Despite her words, she did not release his wrist.

The man struggled and squirmed, his bones twisting under her fingers, but he could not break free of her. Abruptly, he spun and viciously backhanded the woman with his free hand, flinging her against the wall. Erika, furious, twisted the arm she still held, flipping the man onto his back despite his greater height. She let go of his wrist and brought one hand down in a swift chop to his abdomen, the Academy standard disabling move. He doubled up, moaning.

Erika turned to the victim, helping her to her feet. "Are you all right?" she asked.

"What did you do to him?" the woman gasped, eyes huge. A red mark was already appearing on her cheek where she'd been struck.

"Nothing permanent," answered Erika, leading her a few feet away. "Just knocked the wind out of him so he won't bother us for awhile. Here, let me fix that so it won't be so red tomorrow."

"You can do that?"

"It's a knack I have." Erika gently touched the woman's cheek with spark of green light from her fingertip. The redness immediately faded, though Erika knew it would still sting a little. "How'd you get mixed up with him, anyway?" she asked, jerking her head at the man on the ground.

"He's my boyfriend," the woman replied. Erika didn't say anything, and the woman sighed. "You're right. Probably not the best choice, huh?" She put a hand to her cheek.

Erika shrugged. "I try not to judge. But it seems to me that you two need some serious counseling. Either that or it's time to do some late spring cleaning in the relationship department."

"I know. It's just that he's really going through a rough time now. I'd hate to leave him alone."

"Is your safety less important than that?" asked Erika pointedly. "He may not be so nice next time. And I won't always be around to bail you out of a jam."

"You sound like my big sister, not some stranger who happens to know karate, or whatever that was back there. Who are you, anyway?"

A stranger who happens to know karate, plus a couple other things. Or just someone who cares. Whichever. Do you need someone to escort you home? The streets are dangerous, this time of night." This was standard superhero policy after rescuing someone from a beating, mugging, or a rape, though in Erika's private opinion it was much easier for male heroes to pull off gracefully than females.

"Apparently not dangerous for you." The woman's thoughts seemed to mirror Erika's.

"I've had some practice." Erika shrugged again.

The woman glanced at the moaning heap that was her boyfriend, back at Erika, and smiled a little. "Well, since it looks like my original escort isn't much use at the moment, I think I'll have to take you up on that offer."

"Lead the way."

They started walking back the way Erika had come. The silence was uncomfortable. The woman seemed to sense that any questions she asked Erika about her origins would not be answered, and Erika had had enough lessons on not getting personally involved drummed into her over the years to want to keep the silence. She wished there were something casual she could say to make the woman feel better, but nothing came to mind.

They finally arrived a small apartment complex. "Well, this is it," Erika's companion said. She swallowed, looked around at the dimly lit sidewalk area, and then back at Erika. "Thank you…for everything."

"No thanks required. But do me a favor. Think about what I said before you go near him again."

"I will." The woman sounded like she meant it. She nodded to Erika, buzzed herself in, and vanished inside the complex. Erika watched her go, then returned to the side street where she'd left the man.

He was gone. Erika looked around carefully to make sure he wasn't lying in wait to jump her, then continued on her rounds. With any luck, those two would sort themselves out when the man was sober. Hopefully both of them had learned something from the experience.

The rest of the night was quiet. Erika did not encounter any more trouble for the remainder of the rounds, for which she was grateful. She returned home through the Metro station as usual, removed her black jumpsuit and stored it back in the closet. She was half asleep by the time she finished her shower.

Erika peeked her head into her mother's room on the way down the hall to her own bed. Mai was not there, which surprised her a little. Erika had expected Celina's murder site not to yield any more clues, but apparently she had been wrong, and Mai was still off investigating. They'd swap stories in the morning, then.

Looking back on that night, to Erika it spoke a great deal for how much the stress of the bank robbery and her subsequent solo run had exhausted her that it had never even occurred to her to worry about why Mai had not returned yet. She simply went into her room, shut the door, and collapsed into bed. She was asleep almost before her head hit the pillow.

_

* * *

_

_Author's note: Ah, the suspense thickens. Thanks go to Cywyllog, who gave me the great idea of making the first part of this chapter from a coyote's perspective. It was a challenge, remembering things like they can't see in color and their noses tell them more than there eyes, but I did my best. Keep reading, keep reviewing. Things are just starting to heat up! _

_SamoaPhoenix9_


	7. Where are All the Gods?

**Chapter 7**

_Disclaimer: Welcome to the Chapter 7 generic disclaimer. I do not own Beauty and the Beast. Now, on with the story._

When Erika woke the next day, it was on her own and not because her mother was banging on the door. Poking her head cautiously out of her bedroom, Erika called "_Haha_? _Koko ni iru?_" There was no answer. Mai was not there.

A small knot of worry formed in Erika's stomach, but she did her best to ignore it. Determinedly, she went through the morning routine in case this was some sort of test Mai had set up to see how Erika would fare once out on her own. She knew deep down, however, that while her mother was tough, she had never resorted to using tricks to get Erika to prove herself. Nevertheless, she went for her usual daily run, hoping against hope that Mai would be there when she got back.

Mai was still gone when Erika came staggering in from her run, and again when she emerged from the shower. When she had been a child, she and her mother had discussed what to do if one or both of her parents did not come home from the nightly run. Erika had used those procedures only once: the night her father died. She shuddered to think what using them again might mean. Besides, she told herself, those protocols might not be valid anymore now that she was Mai's apprentice and not just her daughter. But what then should she do? Erika decided to wait it out. If Mai was not back by nightfall she would call it in, no matter what. With that decided, now all she had to do was try to relax, and tell herself her mother might be home any minute.

The house was too quiet. Erika defeated the urge to pace and tried to drown out the silence by playing some of her favorite CDs, the ones that made Mai scowl and mutter darkly in Japanese every time she heard them. Mai was big on classic rock, while Erika had gotten into country while living at school, like most of the rest of her friends who existed on the fringe of popularity. Come to think of it, she hadn't spoken to any of her friends in a long time. She almost stood up to walk to the phone, but decided against it at the last minute. Better to keep the lines open in case her mother tried to call, since their two-way communicators were off-limits when both of them were not in uniform. To make up for it, she cranked Kenny Chesney up a few more notches and started singing along.

Someone rapped on the front door. Erika ran to open it, so anxious to see her mother safe she didn't bother to turn the music back down.

The tall figure waiting on the front porch grinned at her, white teeth flashing in a tanned face. Jerry, not Mai. Erika stared at him, open-mouthed, and was suddenly acutely aware of the country music blasting from the living room. She tried not to cringe. Jerry and his crowd listened to pop and rap, and disdained anything else.

He cocked a reddish eyebrow, just visible above the rims of his dark glasses. "Is this a bad time?"

"Uh…sort of." Erika gave her head a little shake to clear it.

"Is it something I can help you with?"

"Well…" This was something she hadn't considered. Sure, she really didn't want to tell him about Mai, but she could make it seem as if nothing was wrong. And if it got rid of Jerry at the same time, so much the better. "I was…just on my way out," she invented quickly.

"Oh." He quirked an eyebrow again at Kenny Chesney still warbling behind her, but thankfully chose not to comment. He smiled a little. "Well, where are you going? If it's in the same direction, maybe we can walk together."

"Maybe you should go on ahead. I still have one or two things to do around the house before I leave." This time she did acknowledge the music with a slight tilt of her head.

"I'm not in a rush. I can wait."

_He's just not taking a hint this time,_ Erika thought grumpily. _And I'm not in any sort of emotional state to deal with this courtship-dancing nonsense._ But since nothing occurred to her as to how to send Jerry on his way, she decided to make the most of it.

"Come in for a minute while I get ready," she said, trying not to sound as resentful as she felt. She held the door open, and Jerry surged inside like a tiger pouncing. Erika immediately realized that she had made a mistake, but there was nothing to be done about it now. She led the way into the living room, steeling herself as she did so.

"Have a seat. I shouldn't be long," she said as politely as she could manage, gesturing to one of the beat-up love seat couches situated around their TV cart. She left the stereo on, a deliberate gesture to Jerry that he was not particularly welcome, and went upstairs to her room. She shuffled around for a few minutes, trying to sound busy while stalling for time to decide what to do next. She knew that no matter what she did now, Jerry was going to read far more into it than what she intended. To that end, she resolved to keep things businesslike, as if they were going out on duty and not on some twisted form of a date. She took a deep breath, let it out in a huff, and went back downstairs.

"All right," she said, switching off the music at last. "I'm ready."

He stood. "Great." They went out of the house, and Erika locked the door with its special key that looked ordinary, but actually triggered an advanced alarm system that would send an alert to Mai and Erika's cell phones and display a realtime video of any break-in in progress.

"So, where are we going?" Jerry asked as they started up the sidewalk.

"Ritz Camera on 21st. Promised my mother I'd go check it out," Erika said shortly.

"Why there? There's a perfectly nice one a block from your house." He had to know she knew this too; both of them had passed the Academy's Navigation of D.C. class, the final exam of which consisted of each individual student, while blindfolded, leading the instructor to a predetermined random location within the city.

"Barry part-owned the one on 21st. He was shot there, too."

"Not more work!" Jerry exclaimed. "Erika, you've got to learn to kick back every once in awhile. There _is_ more to life than heroics, you know. But then, I can hardly blame you. I mean, look at what you've got for a role model! Talk about textbook workaholic."

Erika bristled at the veiled insult to her mother, though likely Jerry hadn't intended it as such. But his comment also made her feel slightly guilty. When was the last time she'd just relaxed and done something because she wanted to and not because she had to? Her first thought, which was only partially true, was that she hadn't had any real fun since her father died. She'd hung out with her friends, seen movies, gone out to eat, and even laughed hundreds of times over the years, but none of that could replace the pure joy she'd felt at being the apple of someone's eye. Her mother loved her just as much as her father had, but in a different way. With him gone, things had never been the same.

Jerry saw her expression waver, and misinterpreted the reason for it. "That's it. You are not doing any more work for the next couple of hours. You're going to come with me, do what I tell you, and you are going to _like it_."

"But—" Erika started to protest. Jerry took her arm in a vicelike grip and dragged her in the opposite direction. As her feet started walking all unwillingly, Erika considered her options. Making enough of a scene could bring the cops, something to be avoided at all costs. Superheroes worked too closely with the police to risk someone recognizing them as 'that kid I once arrested' down the line. And it was no good trying to escape: Jerry would be ready for anything Erika could throw at him except for a few specialized Japanese moves learned from Mai, and she wanted to keep those in reserve as a last resort. So she really had no choice but to follow obediently and hope she could slip away later.

It was an awkward afternoon, at least for Erika. Jerry first took her out for pizza in a small Italian place frequented by the more popular members of their graduating class. Lyle met them there, as well as five or six others. They all tried to squeeze into one booth meant for six people, the result of which was that Erika was squashed between a badly painted wooden wall and Jerry, who was more intent on pretending to use his X-ray vision to look through the two other girls' shirts than anything else. The girls squealed and tried to duck under the table whenever he did this, making things even more uncomfortable. They were a loud and boisterous group, all told, and Erika felt especially sorry for the young waitress who served them, what with the boys attempting to flirt with her (except for Lyle, who remained characteristically stoic) and the girls changing their exacting orders every five minutes. By the time the food actually came, Erika was feeling more than slightly nauseated and could barely down more than a few bites of the slice of cheese pizza she'd ordered. She knew she needed a good, solid meal to keep her going on the rounds that night, but couldn't bring herself to care.

"How do you stand it?" she whispered to Lyle when they all finally emerged from the restaurant into a beautiful late spring evening, with the sinking sun lighting up the western sides of the nearby office buildings with a brilliant orange-red glow.

"Stand what?" asked Lyle, expressionless as usual.

"Them!" Erika gestured at the others in their group, who were gathered around Jerry like well-polarized magnets, "Acting like that all the time!"

"Oh, you'll get used to it," answered Lyle with a noncommittal shrug.

Listening to him, Erika could almost believe it. After all, he'd survived his longtime association with the group with his intelligence relatively intact. But then, he seemed the type of person who would watch a nuclear fallout without batting an eyelash. She shook her head. "I doubt it."

For the first time, a hint of an expression slid over Lyle's face. It happened so fast that Erika easily convinced herself she'd imagined it; but for a moment she could have sworn he looked surprised, and then annoyed, before he reverted back to his usual emotionless state. He jerked one shoulder in a half-shrug and strolled over to join the others. Erika watched him thoughtfully as he said something that looked like, "Hey, shouldn't we get going?"

The result made her blink. Immediately, the group ceased their casual joking around long enough to start walking down the street. Lyle murmured something to Jerry that was almost imperceptible had Erika not happened to glance at the right spot as he did so. Jerry nodded, and came back to fetch Erika.

"C'mon, we should get moving if we're going to make it on time," he said, slinging a familiar arm around her shoulders.

Erika peeled the arm off, but settled for walking beside him. "Where are we going?"

"The movies, silly girl," he replied, seemingly unperturbed by her rejection of closer contact, "There's just enough time to catch one before we all have to head out on our rounds."

Erika wanted to protest that she needed to get home and see if her mother had returned, but that would entail revealing that her mother was missing, something she preferred to avoid at all costs. It seemed to she had no choice but to walk docilely beside Jerry again, wishing herself elsewhere. At least he wasn't talking, which gave her a few minutes to think over what was still niggling at her: Lyle. Since when did he have such authority? Yet she'd just seen him set the group of boisterous young people moving with only a few words, something she doubted even Jerry in the height of his charisma could do as successfully. And what was that brief little whisper she'd caught from Lyle to Jerry? There seemed to be no logical explanation for that at all.

They arrived at the movie theater in the middle of her wonderings. Erika was so lost in thought that she forgot to protest when Jerry paid for her ticket, though as soon as she realized the transaction was complete she cursed herself. Now they were officially on a date; there was no getting around it.

The movie selected by the group was one in the few genres she hated: horror. They all seemed the same to her: something supernatural coming back from the dead to torment the living. But there was no backing out now; the tickets were bought. Erika cursed silently again, took a deep breath, and settled into her seat at the end of a row, with the others lined up to her right and Jerry (of course) occupying the only seat beside her. She clenched her teeth and wondered how much more of this going-with-the-flow she could take before she snapped.

The movie began. The plot was predictable, as she had anticipated. Erika was willing to bet she could have guessed exactly who was going to die after the first five minutes. But then, during a part of the movie that was not particularly tense, something happened to make her jump halfway out of her seat: her communicator buzzed. The one that was only supposed to be used when she was in uniform. She'd brought it along on a whim, on the off-chance Mai might try to reach her. And now it was vibrating urgently in her pocket.

She jumped up.

"What is it?" Jerry hissed, half-standing as well.

"Bathroom," Erika whispered back. "The soda from dinner just hit me."

"Ah. Go ahead, then." He settled down in his seat and turned his attention back to the movie.

As quietly as she could, Erika slipped from the movie theater. She asked the nearest attendant where the bathroom was, slid into an empty stall, locked herself in, and sat down. Only then did she pull the communicator out of her pocket and examine it.

There was no message waiting, nothing to indicate what might have triggered the buzz. Frowning, Erika pushed a few buttons, bringing up the GPS function combined with the special tracer that would use satellite imaging to show her exactly where the other communicator was. A tiny map appeared on the screen, which began zooming in on first North America, then the east coast, then the mid-Atlantic region, and then finally D.C. Erika had just enough time to see the zoom frame the large park she and Mai had run beside the previous morning before the screen abruptly went dark.

Frantically, Erika tapped a few keys, bringing up only an "Error. Check transmission." message. That could only mean one thing: something, or someone, had destroyed the other communicator. Erika doubted it was coincidence that it had occurred just as she had been about to discover her mother's location.

Well. She knew where to start, and the park would probably take her all night to search thoroughly. There was no time to go home to fetch her jumpsuit and equipment. She'd have to go it without them, as a civilian. She could only hope it wasn't too late already.

She tucked the communicator back into her pocket and left the bathroom. As she exited the movie theater complex, she smiled slightly. If there was one good thing that had come out of this already, it was that she had managed to get away from Jerry, to a place where neither he nor anyone else would ever think to look for her.

_

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_Author's Note: I tried to think of the worst, most awkward first date imaginable for this chapter. I hope none of my readership has experienced a date like this. (Thankfully, I haven't either) Anyway, I hope you all are enjoying. _

_Translation: "Koko ni iru?" means (roughly) "Are you here?"  
SamoaPhoenix9_


	8. My Wildest Fantasy

**Chapter 8**

_Disclaimer: Despite all the money I'm making at my summer job, it's nowhere near enough to begin making a down payment on the copyrights to Beauty and the Beast. Not that I would do that anyway. So the story belongs to Disney._

Erika ended up taking the Metro to the stop closest to the park. She didn't particularly mind; it was a lot quicker than walking all that way, and by some miracle she'd remembered to bring her prepaid fare card. For the umpteenth time she wished she had some faster form of transportation, such as her mother's running-on-water trick. It was little things like that that made her feel like a civilian in disguise as a hero rather than vice versa.

She emerged from the Metro station to a world bathed in twilight. The sun had already disappeared and it was getting darker by the second. Erika checked her watch. The movie should just be getting out. She wondered what Jerry would think, knowing she'd ditched him on what he thought was their first official date. She did feel a little bit guilty at having to hurt his feelings; after all he had at least been making an attempt to be nice to her, little as she cared for his way of going about it. But dealing with the repercussions of what she'd done would have to wait until her mother was safe.

Around the next block she went, so secure in her knowledge of the city that she barely had to think about stopping at traffic lights or which street to turn on. This left her mind free to worry about other details that she'd overlooked, such as what Mai was doing in the park in the first place. Sure, the corner where Celina had died was across the street from its southeastern border, but what possibly could have possessed her mother to venture into the park at all? And what had destroyed that communicator? Someone who recognized it for what it was, and didn't want its owner found, or could it just have been stolen by some forest creature who accidentally activated it before tearing it to pieces? It wasn't like Mai to be so careless with her equipment, but it was possible. But if that was the case, then the question came right back to the most important issue at stake: _where was Mai?_ Erika quickened her steps.

Unfortunately for her, the nearest Metro stop to the park was by its northernmost end, nowhere near Mai's last known location. If she had to waste time in getting there, she figured she might as well waste it productively by walking through the park rather than around.

The closest former entrance was barred by a rusted-out gate that pierced a chain-link fence, no trouble at all for someone with Erika's training. She made her way into the trees to one side of the gate and simply walked until she came to a hole in the fence's base made by a larger animal, maybe a fox or even a dog. She dug out the ground beneath the hole to make it large enough to slip through and then crawled under the fence, wincing as sharp ends of rusty chain-link scraped along her back and leaving streaks of red-brown residue on her clothes. Once inside the park, she checked to make sure she had nothing worse than bruises, healed them quickly, and started a quick trot back to the gate.

The gravel path leading away from the gate and into the park was still clearly visible, though it was pierced by shoulder-high saplings and strewn with dead leaves. It was also very dark, under the tree cover. Erika quickly found herself longing for her night vision goggles as she stumbled over root after root. All around her she heard animals scrambling for cover, startled from their night's activities by her intrusion. Still she fumbled on, sweeping the ground with her eyes, stopping every few feet to check that she was still on the path. She didn't dare call out. If Mai was still in uniform, which was likely, then a girl in civilian dress calling for her mother would provide an immediate link to both of their secret identities to anyone else who might be listening.

"Not that there's anyone to hear." Erika startled herself by speaking aloud, and then immediately regretted it. Suddenly, it was painfully obvious how alone she was. A city girl all her life, she found that she disliked the feeling. But her training demanded that she swallow her sudden instinct to cower on the ground like a small lost child and continue on. She obeyed, and the uneasiness diminished to a more bearable level again.

The glow of her digital watch face told her that she had been in the park for a little less than half an hour when Erika realized that she was being watched. She stopped abruptly, and her dark-adjusted eyes detected movement to her left.

"Who's there?" she demanded. "I know someone's out there. Show yourself!" There was no answer. Erika swallowed and stayed where she was, moving subtly into a balanced fighters' stance.

Something rustled through the underbrush to her right. Erika spun to cover that quarter, but she was unprepared for what emerged from the trees: four silvery-gray coyotes. She had heard there were coyotes moving into the city, had seen the warnings on the news not to feed them or encourage them to come close, but had never actually expected to encounter any. To her utter astonishment, these four showed no signs of fear or aggression. They simply observed her for a few seconds, eyes glittering in the darkness. Then one, the largest of the group, stepped forward.

He paced slowly, as if afraid to startle her. Had she not been so frozen with astonishment, Erika would have grinned at her own anthromorphism. As if coyotes worried at all about frightening humans! It was probably just using some sort of hypnotic technique before it went for her throat. That thought brought her out of her shock abruptly and she steadied herself, waiting to block the inevitable leap.

It never came. Instead, the coyote came all the way up to her and began snuffling at her shoes. Erika tensed, ready to kick out should it decide to bite, but again nothing of the kind happened. The coyote stuck out its tongue and licked the tip of her left shoe twice, then sat down to look up into her face, panting contentedly. It looked so much like a silvery, pointy-eared dog that Erika felt her heart start to soften. She quickly hardened it again. The coyote had to be up to something, but she knew so little about coyote behavior that she could not figure out what it might be. Coyotes were tricksters, weren't they? Or had they just been given that role in Native American myth because they were smarter and more adaptable than other animals?

She tried out her voice. "Umm…"

The coyote continued to watch her, though it stopped panting.

"Hi." It was a stupid thing to say, but then the coyote couldn't understand her. Erika swallowed hard and continued, hoping she sounded calm. "So sorry to intrude on you guys like this. But I'm…looking for something. Someone." She was babbling, and she knew it, but it was the only thing her brain would allow in order to keep her from total panic.

The coyote actually tilted his head at her, as if to say "Go on." Erika stared at it, mouth open, and said nothing. The animal stood and walked back to its companions. The other three vanished again into the darkness of the underbrush. Their leader (it had to be their leader) turned and looked back over its shoulder at Erika.

"You…you want me to follow you?" she stammered.

It gave a high-pitched yip and disappeared into the woods after its companions.

"I'll take it that means yes," Erika muttered, staring at the spot where it had vanished. "This is crazy. I must be dreaming. This whole day has just been a nightmare. When I wake up, I'll be in my own bed and _Haha_ will be dumping freezing water on my head." But she didn't really believe her own words, especially after she reached down and pinched her arm hard. It hurt enough to tell her beyond a doubt that this was no dream. "This is crazy," she repeated, a little louder. "Like something out of the Twilight Zone, or the Brothers Grimm."

The coyote's head reappeared from behind a tree.

Erika sighed. "All right, I'm coming." She followed, glancing back once at the path. But it was already lost in the darkness behind her.

The coyote led her on a seemingly random route through the park, though Erika had to admit that they could have been going in a laser-straight line and she might not have been able to tell. But the route _felt _random. Around trees and over huge rocks and even through a dilapidated playground they went, the coyote never allowing Erika to lose sight of him for more than a minute at a time. Her stomach rumbled, and she briefly remembered that she'd barely eaten at dinner. She ignored her hunger and forged on.

They splashed through a stream about as wide across as Erika was tall. The water was shockingly cold, and woke Erika up after what seemed like hours of plunging through branches.

"Are we almost there?" she asked her guide, half-joking. "Do you even know where you're leading me?"

The coyote ignored this, scrambling up the bank and then waiting for her to join it. They paused side-by-side at the top, and Erika realized that they were on another gravel path, one that followed the bank of the stream. The coyote trotted off down it and Erika had no choice but to follow. After another five minutes, suddenly her guide let out another yip and arrowed into the darkness. Within seconds, Erika had lost sight of it.

"Hey, wait!" she called, but for the first time the coyote did not return.

Erika looked around helplessly. She was on the edge of a clearing, though how large it might be she couldn't tell. She took a few hesitant steps forward. Out of the darkness loomed a large structure that, though it was covered almost entirely with vines, was clearly man-made by its shape. A few more steps showed her that the vines were planted in a fairly neat row stretching between propped-up logs of varying thicknesses. That could hardly be accidental, though not even coyotes could possibly be strong enough to do such a thing. Erika shivered, but she circled the structure all the same.

One end, the end facing away from the path, was covered by neither vines nor logs. She stepped under the roof onto smooth concrete lined with cracks, and looked up to see concrete beams overhead. Ahead of her she could make out the shadowed forms of broken picnic tables and benches. This had once been a picnic pavilion, now transformed into some sort of forest dwelling. Erika dared not think of who—or what—might call this place home.

She ventured forward, weaving between tables and benches still roughly in their uniform rows. Towards the back, the tables were more intact, sheltered better from the weather by the vine-and-log walls. And lying on top of one of these…

"_Haha_!" Erika gasped, rushing forward. Mai was still in uniform. Her eyes were closed, her face pale, her breath soft. She did not stir when Erika gently shook her shoulder. Beside her lay her communicator, crunched in on itself as if squeezed by some gigantic hand. Erika picked it up and examined it critically. It would have had to be an extremely powerful hand, to crush the communicator so effectively. The device was clearly beyond repair.

"What happened, _Haha_? How did you get here?" she murmured, looking at her mother's still face. Then she shook herself. "Never mind. Questions later. We've got to wake you up and get you out of here." She reached forward with glowing green fingertips towards Mai's forehead.

"Don't touch her," growled a voice from behind. "We have some talking to do first."

_

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_Author's Note: Sorry about the slow pace of this chapter. I wanted to give it a dreamlike sort of feel even though it's not a dream, and there would be very little talking anyway with Erika wandering around in the dark. It may take me a few weeks to update again because I leave for vacation in a couple of days. Enjoy the lull before the storm! _

_SamoaPhoenix9_


	9. Gotta Be Sure

**Chapter 9**

_Disclaimer: I've done way too many of these by now. It can't be healthy. But obligation demands that I repeat that I do not own anything that belongs to Disney._

Jack looked coldly at the dark figure standing over his captive, a snarl on his face. But he was more confused than anything else. From the few murmured words his ears had caught he judged the figure to be female, but she was standing in such a way that she was mostly obscured by shadow. Even with his excellent night vision it was hard to see much about her. He could make out a pair of sneakers and what he thought might be jean shorts and a t-shirt in some dark color, maybe navy blue or forest green. Odd that she was in civilian dress and not the uniform of a superhero as he'd expected. Her face, turned as it was towards the unconscious captive, was obscured by a curtain of straight hair. One pale arm had halted outstretched, fingers splayed wide mere inches from the woman on the table. Green sparks had been eddying around that hand moments before, of that he was certain. Strange that he would see two women with healing powers in almost as many days.

Her shoulders shifted; she was about to turn and face him. "Don't look!" he rapped out. Let her think he had a gun pointed at her, or some such thing. He could stave off the horror in her eyes when she finally saw him for a few minutes more.

She froze, her muscles locking in place. He eyed her for a moment, making certain that she was not going to move before snapping, "Who are you, and what are you doing here?"

He heard her swallow. "I came to find my mentor," she answered stiffly.

"Your mentor?" he repeated, taken aback. "But she was alone."

"She disappeared last night while on a…solo maneuver. I saw on our two-way communicator that she was somewhere within the park before the connection was cut."

Jack cursed himself silently. He knew he'd been a fool to touch that communicator, but he hadn't been able to resist. It was so like the one he'd once carried himself. When the thing went off, he'd panicked and crushed it before stopping to think. And now it had drawn his captive's protégée into the park as well.

"And you came seeking her in civilian dress?" He couldn't stop himself from asking the question.

"How else would I dress? I'm not in the military," she said, in that carefully practiced neutral tone he knew well.

"Don't try to bluff," he said gruffly. "I know a superhero when I see one, in or out of uniform. And I know when a superhero's nosing into things she shouldn't be." Let her take that as she would, and he could gauge her reaction.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she answered coldly, but there was a tremor in her voice. "Listen, whoever you are, I didn't come here to play games with you. I came to find her. I'll freely admit to being a trainee superhero, since you seem to know that already. I'll even tell you my powers: I'm a healer, nothing more." There was a bitter edge to her voice as she said that that Jack almost missed, but he elected not to comment. She continued, "Just let me heal her from whatever you did to her and then we'll leave you alone. Please. Before the damage becomes permanent." There was real pleading in her voice now.

Jack couldn't stop a grim chuckle. "I don't know what they're teaching about negotiation at the Academy these days, but you just blew it," he informed her. "You're supposed to pretend the captive means nothing to you so that they become worthless as a hostage. You even admitted your powers are useless in a fight. You just handed your every possible weapon to me."

"I know," she whispered. "I was hoping to show you that I've got nothing to hide."

"Touching, but not good enough. She had no reason for coming into my territory last night, and I want to know why she did."

The girl's still-outstretched hand trembled ever so slightly. "Let me wake her up, and you can ask her yourself."

"No. If you do that, she'll be at full strength, and who knows what she'd do to me with whatever her powers are? You'd both escape, and I'd learn nothing."

"You need her weakened, so you can question her before she's strong enough to bear it." The tremor was back in her voice. Jack chose not to answer. After a moment, she said, "It looks like we're at an impasse."

"Looks like it," Jack agreed.

"Then let's make a deal. You let her go, and I'll stay here in her place." This time her voice didn't waver.

"What do I get out of that?" asked Jack skeptically. "Do you know what she was doing here?"

"Most of it." He saw her shoulders shift, as if she'd been going to shrug and thought better of it. "Do we have a deal? I'll stay here as your prisoner, and you let her go unharmed."

It was a tempting offer, especially if she knew what her mentor had been doing in the forest. Despite Graynose's assertions, Jack still believed the woman knew something about the goings-on in the clearing. And if her apprentice knew about it too, then that was even better. She couldn't use her healing powers to escape. Still…

"I'll let her go, but there will be one or two conditions. First, you won't be healing her. I'll make certain she gets to a hospital, but I don't want her having any idea of where you are or where to find you when she wakes up."

"What? That's inhuman! What if it's something the hospital can't fix, but I can?" she demanded.

"Your problem, not mine. At least she'll be getting some treatment," Jack pointed out. He ignored her epithet, though it prickled at him like a thornbush. Inhuman? He barely remembered what was or wasn't human, these days.

"What are the other conditions?" she asked in a small voice.

"You give me your word to stay in the park and not to try and notify anyone of your whereabouts."

"Until when?"

He considered. "Until I have answers."

"But that could be…I mean, what if it turns out I don't have what you need?"

"You'd better hope you do, or you'll be stuck here a long time." He strove for an indifferent tone. He doubted they'd be stuck with each other for more than a day or two, or however long it took for him to get out of her what she and her mentor had been up to. That might take some doing with a healer, since using pain as an incentive would be out of the question. But Jack felt he was up to the challenge. "Well?" he demanded when she was silent too long. "What will it be?"

"Let me ask you one thing, before I give you my answer," she said. He heard iron control in her voice, and he wondered for a second how easy it was going to be to squeeze truthful answers out of her.

"One thing," he repeated, still trying to sound as if it didn't matter.

"Can I turn my head?"

He blinked, taken aback. Then he swore silently to himself. This was a moment he'd been dreading, seeing her eyes widen in horror, but how could he expect a girl trained by the Academy to agree to anything without at least thinking she knew what she was in for?

"Go ahead," he said.

She turned to face him, straightening to her full height as she did so. She was tall for a female, he noted first. Then he got a good look at her face, and forgot even about watching for her reaction.

She was the girl from the path, the one he'd been watching just days ago while she so casually healed a cut on her knee. The one whose black hair he'd admired as she ran. Then his brain caught up with him somewhat. Of course that girl and this were one and the same. How could he not have realized it before? Healing was not a common gift. She was probably the only one in the whole city. The green light at her hands should at least have tipped him off.

Her movement had brought her into better light, and he took an extra moment to study her from head to toe. Her sneakers, once white, were well-used and scuffed. They were also damp. She'd been in a stream at least once tonight. Her arms and legs and even her neck were scraped from walking through the woods in the dark. Her shorts, an unusually modest length for a girl her age, sported a few streaks of dirt. One sleeve of her t-shirt was torn. Her features were an interesting blend of Western and Asian, with straight black hair that hung well below her shoulders, flat cheekbones, an unremarkable nose, full lips, and almond-shaped eyes that were an indefinable shade in the dim light.

She was eyeing him without fear or horror, only a sort of cold anger. "Well?" he demanded when she was silent too long.

"I knew it," she said to no on in particular.

Again not the reaction he'd expected. "Knew what?"

"I knew you were the rogue hero who's been hiding out here. You knew too much about the Academy not to be. You're the reason they closed the park."

"You're a clever girl," he admitted. "Or you've been well-trained. But that doesn't matter at the moment. You still haven't given me an answer. Do we have an agreement, or not?"

The girl glanced at the woman on the table, then squared her shoulders. "We have an agreement."

"Good. I'll take your mentor and make certain she is taken to a hospital. Be sure you're still here when I get back or you won't like what happens to either of you. I can track you anywhere you try to hide."

The girl swallowed and nodded, showing fear for the first time on her face as she eyed Jack's claws. She moved out of his way as he bent and picked up her unconscious mentor. He did make certain to keep himself between the two of them, in case the girl tried to do any healing on the sly. He would have, in her place. But she locked her palms behind her back, and though she trembled visibly when he casually slung the limp body over one shoulder she made no move to touch either of them. As he crossed the threshold from the picnic shelter and into the dark clearing, she called something out after him in a language he didn't recognize. The tears in her voice were almost tangible, though when he tensed and looked back her face was blank. She must have a will of steel, then, to keep her feelings from her face so effectively. He could almost admire her for that, though it would make both of their lives a great deal more miserable in the near future.

Graynose materialized out of the trees before Jack had gone ten feet out of his clearing.

_Why did you do that?!_ the coyote demanded, more angry than Jack had ever seen him. _The poor thing only came looking for her mother, and now you've separated them again!_

"Her _mother_?" Jack exclaimed. He knelt and placed his captive on the ground to get a good look at her. There might have been a resemblance, but the girl's features had been such a mix of Europe and Asia that it was hard to say for sure. "How can you tell?" he asked.

_They are dam and pup. They share the same blood. I smelled it on the girl as soon as she came into the park, _Graynose insisted. _And I am still not convinced that either one of them had anything to do with the intruders in the clearing. Neither of their smells match. And the girl certainly is no shapeshifter, or she would have done so to protect her dam. What are you going to do with her when she has no valuable information?_

"I'll deal with that when we come to it, if it ever happens," answered Jack dismissively. "Now, I have to keep my word and make sure this one gets to a hospital." He lifted the woman, still in her superhero garb, again.

Graynose walked beside him. _How are you going to do that?_

"Easy enough. I'll just leave her for someone to find outside the park, and then watch to be certain she gets taken away in an ambulance. All ambulances go to a hospital of some kind. If she's lucky, they'll take her to Georgetown, or maybe Walter Reed or the Naval Hospital. Either way, she's out of my hair."

_I don't like this. It seems very a very callous way of treating these humans._

"Since when do coyotes worry about morals?" Jack scoffed, ducking a low-hanging branch. "You're thieves, when it comes down to it."

_We take what is available, yes. We are not bound to human concepts of ownership. But we at least respect our own kind. _Graynose glanced meaningfully at Jack, who looked away.

"They're not my kind. Not anymore," he said, but he couldn't make himself believe it.

Graynose didn't seem to believe it, either. _Then who are your kind? These are humans from your own pack, the ones with special abilities who protect those humans without. They are your kind, if any are._

Jack had no answer for that. The rest of the journey to the nearest edge of the park was made in silence. Jack used the time to mull over how best to deal with his new captive rather than dwell on Graynose's more unsettling insights.

_I underestimated her, _he thought. _I thought she was putting all her cards on the table. I thought she was weak, showing that she cared about my prisoner and admitting she has no power to hurt me. But even then, she was holding back that her mentor was also her mother. She never gave so much as a hint, even when she was desperate._

The girl had more than a will of steel. More like a will of titanium. Jack couldn't suppress a swallow of nerves. How was he ever going to get her to tell him _anything_ useful?

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_Author's Note: Sorry about the long wait and the cliffie. And thanks to all who have reviewed so far. It means a lot to know my work is appreciated. _

_We'll get Erika's reactions to this first encounter in the next chapter. But Jack has some remembering to do about what it means to be human before we can even begin to _think_ about mutual attraction. So stay tuned! _

_SamoaPhoenix9 _


	10. Till the Morning Light

**Chapter 10**

_Disclaimer: This chapter's disclaimer will be delivered in whale: Iaaaaayyyyy dooooo nnnoooooooot oooooowwwwwnnn Beauuuuuuuutyyyy aannnnnnnd thuuuh Beeeeeeeeeast. (Yay for Finding Nemo!)_

Erika sat with her back against the concrete wall, eyes closed, one clenched fist resting on her bent knee. She knew perfectly well what she'd done. It was highly unlikely that she had the information that the rogue hero wanted, especially if he was involved in Barry and Celina's murders. If he wanted to know how far the investigation had gone, she could tell him that, but not much more. She resigned herself to being stuck here, in this clearing, for a long, long time. With torture in some shape or form a good possibility in the near future.

She didn't cry. She hadn't really cried since her father's funeral. Somewhere deep inside, a part of her was always thinking, what is any sorrow, worry, or pain, compared to never seeing my father's face again? Such thoughts had given her an edge in training, when her peers had been worn down by psychological punches. The teachers whose job it was to train torture resistance had said that there was an iron barrier around her mind that not even the practiced mind-readers among them could crack.

The Academy psychologist had actually been worried about this. He had once called her out of History of the World class to have a talk with her when she was about sixteen. She could still picture that conversation. She had sat perched on a comfortable couch in the psychologist's cozy little cubbyhole of an office across from the psychologist himself, who sat behind his desk with elbows resting on the table. He had the fathomless black eyes of a mind-reader. She was careful not to meet those eyes.

"Erika, how are you?"

Erika considered, in case this was a trick question where the answer was supposed to reveal something about you. In the end, she opted for a simple "Fine."

"You're doing well in your training. Your scores are pretty impressive." He reached out, picked up a thick manila folder, and began leafing through it.

Erika was not sure how to respond to this. "I try."

"That's good. Keep it up." There was a slight pause until he found the packet of papers he wanted, held together with a staple. "These are your results for last semester's Torture Resistance program."

"I passed, didn't I?" Erika asked, a slight bubble of panic forming in her stomach. The students generally were never allowed to know their scores unless they failed completely, to prevent comparisons.

"Of course, of course," the psychologist answered soothingly. "I didn't mean to alarm you. Of course you passed. Better than passing; it seems your mind is a veritable iron wall."

"That's good, isn't it?"

"Well, if you're ever tortured to the point where you're almost insensible, you'll be happy to know that you won't give away anything vital. But there's something else that's worrisome here, Erika." He flipped back about ten pages into the packet and took a few seconds to scan it, although he had to already know exactly what it said. He looked back at her. "The mind readers report that they couldn't get anything out of you except a few scattered images of your parents. Everything else is locked down tight."

Erika waited for him to elaborate, to tell her why this was an issue. When he said nothing, she ventured, "So…what's the problem?"

"Erika, there are certain things a mind reader like me expects to see when they look into a person's mind, whether they've had torture resistance training or not. Most of it is meaningless, just random images from that person's life. But with you…there's nothing. Just a blank, gray, featureless wall."

"So does this mean you think I'm brain-dead?" Erika asked, trying to lighten the mood. "Is there a cure for that?"

"I'm not joking, Erika, this is serious. We both know you're far from brain-dead. The few images we get of your parents proves that beyond a doubt. But what this means is that you're shutting people out, avoiding real emotional connection. No one is born with a barrier like this; it's something that develops over time to avoid the hurt that is sometimes the consequence of human relationships. Very often in connection with severe emotional trauma." His look shifted from clinical to sympathetic. "I understand your grief for your father isn't something you can just 'get over.' I'm not asking you to do that. But you can't keep shutting people out, Erika. It's not healthy."

"How do you know?" Erika demanded. "I don't see anything wrong with this 'barrier' you're talking about. It keeps potential bad guys from getting things out of my head that I don't want them to, right?"

"Yes, it does, but that can be done just as well without the barrier. With the right training, which you now have."

"Then I'm doubly protected."

He ran a hand through his thinning black hair. "No, Erika, you misunderstand me. This barrier isn't protection against people probing your mind; it's a protection against anyone getting close to you. You're a compassionate person. You've shown that over and over in your time here. You love your mother and you loved your father, or their images wouldn't appear outside the barrier. But as long as that barrier stays in place, you won't have any other satisfying relationships. Your connections to other people will be superficial, at best." He paused, looking at her unconvinced face. "You won't be able to fall in love. Think about it."

That had shaken her a little, but not enough for her to do anything different in her life. Falling in love had ruined more than one superhero's career, after all. She'd gone on to graduate a few years later, without any demur from the psychologist. Apparently whatever mental barriers she had didn't interfere with her performance as a superhero. She hadn't thought much about that meeting until now.

Erika came back to herself with a jerk. She was still in the concrete picnic shelter, and her head had been drifting towards her chest. It was pitch black outside. She glanced at her watch, which had a button to push so that the digital face would be illuminated. Dawn was still a few hours away. She might as well get some sleep while she could. She leaned back against the cold concrete and closed her eyes.

When she opened them again, the grass in the clearing outside was lightly touched with pale gold. She was also incredibly stiff. A groan escaped her lips as she stood up and hobbled into the clearing. The sun's warmth soothed her aching muscles somewhat, and her Academy-learned stretching exercises did the rest.

He was there when she finished, watching out of those too-bright eyes. In the new day's light, she could see that they were bright blue in color, though slit-pupiled like a cat's. The rest of him was just as she remembered it from the night before: at least seven feet tall if he were standing upright, covered with coarse brown fur, and built along the lines of a bear but with the pointed ears of a wolf and a pair of short, thick horns. Instead of a flat bear's paws, his were more in the shape of a lion or a tiger with retractable claws, and opposable thumbs on his front legs. Despite his bulk, he moved with a cat's grace and silence.

She decided it was best to be polite. "Good morning."

He growled at her. "I watched to make sure your mother was safely in the hands of the paramedics before coming back. Took longer than I expected for someone to notice her and call 911."

"Yeah, people in D.C. have a tendency to keep walking," agreed Erika, deliberately ignoring the word 'mother.' Now that Mai was out of the way, it didn't matter if he knew she was Erika's mother or not. It would have come out eventually, in any case.

His heavy brows snapped together. Clearly he'd expected a bigger reaction. Erika defeated the urge to smile at him sweetly—it wouldn't do her any good to provoke him, or to give him any more reason to think she would keep things back deliberately.

He snorted at her and stalked into the picnic shelter, calling over his shoulder, "Don't leave the clearing. Having to come look for you won't sweeten my temper any towards you." If she squinted, she could just see him curling up at the back, preparing to go to sleep. She supposed they'd get to questions and threats later on. Shrugging, she began on some of her daily strength training exercises.

It didn't take her too long to realize that this was probably a mistake. There was no safe water around for her to rehydrate, and the day promised to be warm. Her stomach was also complaining again—she hadn't had a good meal since the afternoon before. As the morning wore on and her captor continued to sleep, it grew harder and harder to ignore her hunger and thirst. The surrounding woods were almost oppressively silent, broken only by the occasional birdsong. Erika caught herself wishing for her potable mp3 player more than once. Even a book would have been welcome, though she had never been much of a one to read for pleasure. Eventually, she propped herself up against a tree not far from the shelter and began singing a few of her favorite country songs, the ones she'd listened to so much that she knew all the lyrics. Just to keep back the silence a little. She didn't have the best voice in the world, but she'd always been able to carry a tune with little trouble. Unlike her mother, whose singing voice sounded like a dying duck. Erika smiled at the thought, determined not to be cast down, and launched into another song before her thoughts turned dark.

She was still at it when he emerged, around noon. They saw each other at the same moment, too late for Erika to stop singing before he heard. It was hard to read expressions on that bearlike face, but Erika could have sworn he looked startled when he found her sitting against the tree singing "Backwards."

She stood up, trying not to blush. After living with her mother for a year, country still had feelings of a guilty pleasure attached to it. She also doubted very much that he was one of the few Academy graduates who actually did enjoy country. Which reminded her of something that had been vaguely bothering her all that morning: why hadn't he changed back to human form, even to sleep? To intimidate her? All her anger at him returned in an instant, and she scowled.

He scowled back. "Are we going to do this the easy way or the hard way?"

"I'd much prefer the easy way." She tried to sound nonchalant, but she shuddered in spite of herself at the number of teeth he was showing.

"Then answer my questions honestly."

Erika sighed. "I'll do my best. But let me remind you before we start that if I don't know the answer to your question, then I really don't know, and nothing will make me say otherwise."

"We'll see," he growled. "What was your mother doing in my park?"

"I don't know."

"Well, this is a great beginning. I thought you at least knew that. What was she doing the last time you saw her, then?"

"We parted ways so that she could check out something we'd been investigating for the past day or so."

"Without you?"

"I was going to do the rounds as usual."

"And did you?"

"Of course I did!" Erika snapped. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"You have to admit it's a little odd for a mentor to leave her pupil to do the rounds on her own. Either they'd both do the rounds or they'd both do the investigating," he pointed out.

"She was giving me practice for my solo year. It's due to start in a few weeks. Don't tell me your mentor didn't do the same."

He didn't answer that remark, which she took to mean his mentor had done exactly that. "What was it that she was investigating?"

"A murder." She wanted to add: _as if you didn't know_, but restrained herself.

He seemed surprised, but then she might have imagined it. "The police didn't do a satisfactory job?"

"I don't know why my mother took an interest in the case. Other than she enjoys a challenge every now and then." This was true enough, though not precisely the reason Mai had started looking into the murders.

"Where did this murder take place?" He actually started to pace.

"It was a drive-by shooting on a block across from the south end of this park," Erika replied. She watched carefully for his reaction to this.

He stopped pacing to look at her. "A drive-by?" She nodded. "I see." He resumed pacing. "And who was the victim?"

"A woman named Celina."

"Did she have a last name?"

"I don't remember," answered Erika.

He looked at her again. "I don't believe you. How can you be investigating a murder and not at least know all the details about the victim?"

"I honestly can't remember," Erika said.

He clearly still thought she wasn't telling the truth, but moved on anyway. "What was your mother doing in the clearing, then?"

"What clearing?"

He growled. "The one where I found her snooping around, of course! The one where she's been meeting with the other people with powers. What are they doing there?"

Now Erika was truly puzzled. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"I don't believe you."

Erika felt her temper begin to boil. "Why should I tell you anything if you're not going to believe a word I say?"

"Just tell me the truth, then!" he thundered.

"I was. I_ am!_ I _don't_ know what you're talking about!"

"Fine! I can see you really do want to do this the hard way. As from now, until you're ready to tell me the complete truth, I'll see to it that you get nothing to eat or drink. See if that opens you up a little."

Fear clutched at her heart. She could resist pain and psychological torture, but this… "You can't do that!" she screamed.

"Watch me. Unless you want to tell me the truth now and save yourself the trouble."

"I did. My mother hasn't been near this park except to jog in the past month," she insisted. Privately her mind was in a whirl. What clearing? What meetings? What exactly did he suspect Mai of doing, anyway? Her mother was no conspirator, nor was she much of a leader. She preferred to work with people as little as possible. Erika's father, Corrine the civilian private investigator, and Erika herself were notable exceptions.

Clearly nothing she said was going to convince her captor of this, so she did not even try to explain. She just glared, willing her eyes to show the truth of what she'd just said.

It did no good. "Fine," he snapped. "Go ahead and starve. It doesn't make a difference to me. We'll try again tomorrow, see if you change your tune." And he stalked out of the clearing, vanishing quickly from sight and sound.

Erika slumped against the tree behind her and slid to the ground, ignoring the sandpaper feelings on her back. She bit her lower lip to keep from screaming in frustration. At last, she yelled out, as loud as she dared: "Monster! Inhuman _beast!_"

There was no reply. Erika made a snarling noise of frustration deep in her throat and settled back to wait, trying to tune out the ever-louder rumbling of her stomach.

_

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_

_Author's Note: This chapter turned out to be more of an insight on Erika than anything else. The length of the sort-of flashback with the Academy psychologist took me especially by surprise, but it shows that she's been shutting people out almost as much as Jack. Sorry for the lack of action. The next chapter or so should pick up. _

_I've been a little disappointed by the sudden drop in reviews for the last two chapters. If you don't share your reactions with me, how can I improve, or even continue to do stuff right? Thanks very much to shortstef, who has reviewed every chapter to date! It means a lot._

_Thanks also to Cywyllog, my country music consultant, because I know nothing about country. Silly details like actual song titles and artist's names too often escape me._

_SamoaPhoenix9_


	11. Like a Fire in My Blood

**Chapter 11**

_Disclaimer: __C'est mon histoire. Ah! Pardon! C'est une histoire du Disney. __(Is Disney masculine or feminine? Somebody who speaks French better than me help me out here)_

It was the sinking of the sun that finally woke Erika somewhat from her hunger-pierced daze. She'd sunk into a sort of trance after her captor had left the clearing, not really sleeping but not really alert either. In that time, the sun's hard golden glare had faded to coat everything around in a dusky ruby glaze. Erika hitched herself further up the tree she was leaning against, trying to shake her head slightly to clear it. Both of these actions were mistakes. Her back and neck muscles screamed with tension, and she had a terrible dehydration headache. To top it all off, after a quick look down she realized that her legs, arms, and probably her face were badly sunburned. She felt so hot and dried-out that she expected to be able to turn to dust any minute, like Sandman from her father's old comic books.

"I almost wish I _were_ Sandman," she croaked out. "Then I wouldn't mind feeling like this quite so much." She sounded like a bad case of bronchitis personified. In a vain attempt to bolster her spirits, she ran down a long list of curses in her mind, mostly at her captor but also at herself, Barry and Celina's killers, plus a few for Mai and even Jerry for contributing to her present situation. Her imagination quickly ran out, leaving her as weak and empty-feeling as before.

Something moved out of the trees and into the clearing. Erika, who had started to sink back into her half-awake state, jerked herself upright, thinking it might be her captor returning. Her reward was sharp twists of pain from her back and head. She winced…and then forgot about everything else, even her aches, at the sight before her.

Bounding into the clearing came not one, but five sleek, silvery-brown coyotes. Each bore something in its jaws: a bag of potato chips, an entire half a deli sandwich still in its paper wrapping, a plastic baggie of grapes, and another of baby carrots. The last of them, the one with a muzzle so gray that it looked white compared to the rest of his tawny coat, carried carefully a large bottle of water that was still three-quarters full. He (she was pretty sure it was a male) dropped his prize into her lap, while the others ranged their gifts in a ragged semicircle before her.

Erika stared. Her hands moved of their own accord, snatching the water bottle and taking two thirsty swigs before her brain started working again with a lurch. To drink or eat too much, too quickly after being deprived for so long would only make her sick, and she would lose what little nourishment she might have gained. She set the water bottle down carefully again and capped it, her hands shaking.

"Thank you," she said softly. Already her voice sounded much better. She tried out a smile. "Don't you guys know you're not supposed to feed the prisoner?"

The silver-nosed coyote nodded solemnly, large dark eyes fixed on her face.

Erika swallowed hard. "Can…can you understand me?"

He nodded again. Erika sighed and settled back against the tree. "I thought one of you did last night, but then I almost convinced myself I dreamed that. You aren't shapeshifters too, are you?"

This time the coyote shook its head. He seemed almost amused.

"Oh. Well, then how can you understand what I'm saying?" she asked. The coyote shrugged, its shoulderblades bunching together under its smooth fur. "You don't know?" Erika guessed. A head shake was her response. "You can't explain?" A nod. "I see. Then why did…oh, never mind. I doubt you helping me can be explained with a nod or a shrug, either."

A nod was her response. Erika smiled a little, hiding her frustration and puzzlement, and turned her attention to the food. She ate in small bites while the coyotes watched, all five of them projecting an air of smug satisfaction. They continued to watch as she hid the food and water she hadn't managed to finish in a hollow of the tree she'd been leaning against.

"I hope he won't notice that. Don't give me away, now," she told to them when she'd finished. Their silver-nosed leader panted agreeably, as if to say he wouldn't. At least, that's what she hoped he was saying. "Thanks. You guys are lifesavers."

Now that she had the energy to spare, she concentrated some of it on making her sunburns slightly less painful. With nourishment in her stomach and the worst of her pain gone, Erika finally felt as if she were up to facing her captor in Round 2 of whatever strange game they were playing.

She checked her watch. It was about 7:30, and soon it would be dusk. The usual time to get ready for the nightly run. The ground normally covered by herself and her mother would be unchecked for two straight nights now. It wouldn't take long for local bad eggs to figure out that the absence of Typhoon and her apprentice meant they had a free range. Innocent people would get hurt, and she was caught kicking her heels because some rogue hero thought her mother had invaded his territory! She sat back down again with a thump, crossing her arms over her chest.

"This whole thing is stupid," she told the coyotes. "By this point I'm pretty sure I don't have the information he wants, and whatever he thinks my mother and I are mixed up in honestly has nothing to do with us. But how am I supposed to convince him of that when he won't believe a word I say?" She sighed. One of the coyotes, a female this time, came up to gently nose her face. Erika held still. However oddly they behaved, they were still wild animals, after all.

The female finished smelling her and sat down, panting contentedly. Her breath smelled terrible, but her pose was so much like dog's that Erika couldn't resist reaching out and running a cautious hand over her head. The coyote tensed, and Erika withdrew her hand quickly. But when the coyote didn't move, she hazarded another try, and this time the coyote allowed it. Erika stroked her gently for several minutes, frayed nerves settling somewhat. The fur was rougher than she'd expected from its shining appearance, but a glance at her hand showed that this was from dirt rather than a quality of the fur itself.

"You need a wash," Erika commented, smiling and wrinkling her nose. She thought of the stream she had splashed through the night before, and stood up. "Come on. We'll go get wet before it starts to get cold for the night."

The coyotes followed several paces behind as she made her way back out of the clearing to the overgrown path, and followed it until she heard the stream gurgling. Sliding down the embankment, Erika paused long enough to remove her shoes and socks, and then, for good measure, her t-shirt and shorts as well.

The coyotes watched her warily from the top of the embankment. When Erika looked back at them, she laughed at their identical expressions of puzzlement.

"Come on," she urged them. "It won't hurt, it's just wet." To prove it, she stepped into the stream herself, dressed in nothing but her underwear. Her bare feet tingled at the chill of the water, and she smiled. She hadn't done anything like this since she was a little girl still clutching her father's hand. Doing it by herself for some reason made her feel slightly daring. Choosing a smooth, flat rock that was just barely submerged, she sat down and let the water run over her legs. Its coolness soothed the remaining ache of the sunburn that she hadn't been able to completely heal for fear of using too much energy. She sighed and closed her eyes blissfully.

When she turned around, the coyotes were gone. _Silly them, afraid of a wash,_ she thought. Still, their sudden disappearance made her feel slightly lonely. Trying to banish the feeling, she slid off the rock and knelt in the streambed, leaning forward to dunk her face and hair under the water.

She sat up suddenly. The woods were too quiet, and the back of her neck prickled. Her Academy-honed instincts screamed that someone was watching her. Slowly, she stood and made her way back to her clothes. She reached down, plucked her t-shirt out of the pile, and pulled it over her head. When her head emerged again from the tangle dark cotton, she found herself staring straight in a pair of blue eyes inches from her own.

Erika squeaked and took a few staggering steps backward. This motion brought into focus the rest of the enormous, dark-furred figure before her. Her captor, of course. Who else had she expected? And worse…how long had he been watching her?

"You indecent Peeping Tom," she hissed, glaring furiously as she fought her t-shirt for possession of its armholes. She won, but he was now standing squarely over the rest of her clothes. "Move," she growled, taking a step forward.

He bared his teeth, and she realized that in her own fury and embarrassment she had failed to see the fur fluffed out along his back. He was as angry as she.

"Why did you leave the clearing?" he snarled. "I told you I wouldn't be in a good mood if I had to track you down!"

"Track me down?" Erika scoffed. "It's a five-minute walk back to the clearing, if that! Now let me get the rest of my clothes, you, you—" She bit back the list of epithets for him she'd come up with earlier. Insulting him further would get her nowhere.

The fur on his back flattened a little, and his blue eyes grew calculating. "I'll settle for a few more truthful answers, since you've already gotten yourself into this predicament."

Erika was ready to scream with fury. "Everything I told you earlier was completely true! Now let me get my clothes. Please."

"Not until you're ready to tell me what you and your mother are up to."

"_Nothing,_" snapped Erika. "How many times do I have to tell you that? Now, have you had enough of your private peep show or not?"

The comment was calculated to startle him, and succeeded. He blinked, and took a half step backwards, which was all Erika needed. Lightning fast she bent down and grabbed her clothes and shoes, clutching them to her chest as if he would snatch them back. His eyes flashed furiously when he realized what she'd done, but he didn't move. He watched her with an odd expression as she slid into her shorts, pulled on her dirty socks, and laced up her shoes. Erika shuddered slightly under his gaze, remembering that, after all, he was a human male no matter what shape he wore. Her face burned anew with embarrassment and anger at the thought.

So furious she forgot any thought of danger, she turned her back on her captor and scrambled up the bank of the stream towards the overgrowth path. Though she would hardly describe her wrath as murderous, she understood at that moment how someone might possibly become so overcome by anger they could kill. She lost all fear of future consequences, and her only thought became to get away.

She stalked down the path. Let him think that she was heading back to the clearing; when she reached the turnoff she simply kept on walking. It didn't matter which direction she went, all she cared about was to get as far from the source of her embarrassment as possible.

Erika walked for a long time. Twilight fell, and then true night. She started to stumble over roots and branches strewn on the path, but still she kept on walking. Deep down, she knew she had broken her bargain, but even after her anger subsided she kept on walking.

Eventually, she had to stop to catch her breath, but since she was in good shape she knew that she was several miles from the converted picnic shelter. She sat on a log on the edge of a large clearing and allowed her body to settle down. She was thirsty again, but did her best to ignore it. When her heart rate had slowed somewhat, she looked around curiously. The dark woods around her were peaceful and quiet. Too quiet.

A rough hand dropped over her mouth, another pinned one arm behind her back. At first she thought it was her captor in human form at last, but quickly dismissed the idea. Even when he had ample chance to touch her, or even do her outright harm, he had never done so. But then who had grabbed her? She squirmed hard, ignoring the pain in her twisted arm.

She heard a click and felt something metal come to rest against her temple. Immediately, she stopped struggling. Though she could heal almost any wound to her body, blowing her brains out was so quick a death that she could never bring her powers to bear in time.

"We've been waiting for you, little healer," a man's voice whispered. "Someone took care of your mentor for us, but we knew you wouldn't be far behind her."

Several things occurred to Erika as her brain worked rapidly to prevent blind panic. The first was that she hadn't been called _little_ in years, and was indignant at such an epithet being applied to her. The second was that there were more than one person who had been lying in ambush for her, since the man had used the words 'we' and 'us.' The third, a much more disturbing thought, was that these people didn't know anything about the shapeshifter with whom she'd made the deal to spare Mai. In fact, these were probably the very people with whom her captor believed she and her mother we in league with! A muffled yell burst from her.

The hands holding her tightened. "Hold still, kid. You won't like the teeth I can grow, if pushed to it," the man growled. _Another shapeshifter,_ Erika thought. She froze. "That's better," he said, and his hands loosened slightly. "Now, be a good girl while we decide the best way to get rid of you."

"It's got to be under the radar, like the other two," another voice, further behind her, pointed out lightly. This voice was also male. "We were lucky only Typhoon was suspicious enough to check out their murders. It needs to stay that way."

"Why don't we keep her?" the man holding Erika asked. "She's a healer. You know how rare that is. She might be useful. We could threaten to snuff her helpless mentor if she disobeys us."

"Maybe," the second voice said thoughtfully. There were few moments of silence. Then, "No. The benefits don't outweigh the risks. This one's clever, and she's been trained by Typhoon. Odds are she'd find some way to escape and inform on us before she'd ever be of use."

"Then how are we going to do it? Have her walk to her own death, like the last one?"

"No. This requires some thinking about. Anything we do to her, we have to ensure she can't heal her way out of," the second voice replied.

Erika listened to this exchange in silent horror. So, not only were these people the ones her own shapeshifter was looking for, but it was likely they were responsible for Celina and Barry's deaths as well. She had to escape, but there was no way that she could see to do it.

The men were still talking behind her. "…drowning?" the first one was suggesting.

"Hmm. A possibility," answered the second.

"Or what about…" the first man's voice trailed off. Erika could feel his hands tightening on her mouth and arm again. "What was that?"

"I hear nothing," the second man replied.

"There's someone out there." The hands were now pinching Erika's skin.

"I believe you. Your animal ears are better than mine," said the second man, his voice almost a whisper. Then he shouted, "Show yourself, or the girl dies!"

A deep growl that might have been mistaken for thunder was the response, followed by a series of higher growls that were no less threatening. The sounds seemed to come from all around the clearing. Erika tensed, waiting for the next move to be made. All she knew was that it wasn't her move to make.

_

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_

_Author's Note: Dun dun dun! Cliffie! Don't hate me, please. Those of you who know Beauty and the Beast (the movie or musical) probably can guess what's going to happen next. So review, and tell me how evil I am. _

_I hope no one was too offended by the stream scene. If you read original fairy tales you will find a surprising amount of implications of nudity and sex, even extramarital sex. (Rapunzel, for instance. Children's books tend to gloss over the fact that the witch finds out about the prince's visits because Rapunzel's clothes no longer fit—she's pregnant with twins. Gasp!) So I feel this is pretty mild in comparison. If anyone thinks it would be appropriate, feel free to tell me so in your review and I will up the rating of this story._

_SamoaPhoenix9_


	12. White Knight

**Chapter 12**

_Disclaimer: I do not own anything in this story that belongs to Disney (though the coyotes belong to me, and anyone who wants to steal one will get hit over the head with a talking candlestick borrowed from the Disney archives.) On with the story!_

_A Few Hours Earlier_

Jack watched the girl stalk away down the path and shook his head. Sure, she had a right to be angry with him, to a degree. He did feel guilty about invading her privacy like that, but it wasn't his fault she'd chosen to disobey his orders and force him to follow her. Nor was it his fault that she had decided to…to… Here Jack actually felt his face heat beneath the fur, an unusual reaction for him. He'd seen other women in less than she had been wearing, though not often. But with this girl, the way she'd looked at him afterwards made him feel that he'd done a shameful thing by observing at her in such a private moment.

And yet he couldn't help seeing. He couldn't help but admire that perfectly sculpted body, or what little he'd seen of it before she came rushing out of the stream. She worked herself hard, that much was sure, and she was all muscle. There was nothing delicate about her. The way she'd glared at him during their brief exchange had given him the sense that had he been human, she'd have punched him hard enough to put him under for several hours. For once he was almost glad to be trapped in his alternate form.

His alternate form. Jack's thoughts came back to earth with a bump. He hadn't thought of this body he wore as his alternate form in a long time. It was simply the way he was. But in the past day he'd had more human interaction than he'd had in years, and perhaps, unconsciously, it had started him thinking like a human again.

Jack shook himself to get rid of the pins-and-needles feeling trickling across his back. He wasn't human, and he never would be again. Why should that bother him so much now? Could it have to do with sharing space, however unwillingly, with a human girl he found attractive?

A yip from the top of the embankment startled him. Graynose stood there. He looked grim, if coyotes could manage such an expression. _The girl did not go back to your den._

"What!?" Jack bellowed. Birds left the trees overhead, startled at the sound.

_I expected her to go back to the clearing after you spoke, but she continued walking. _Graynose paused, and Jack suspected the coyote didn't like what he had to say next. _She is headed south._

South. Towards the other clearing, the one where the people with powers met. Now Jack understood Graynose's discomfort. The coyote alpha male had been reluctant to admit that he had been wrong about the girl and her mother. It appeared that the two of them were indeed somehow involved. _And she was so convincing in her surprise when I mentioned the clearing, _Jack thought. He'd almost believed in her innocence at that moment.

He scrambled up the bank to join Graynose. "Let's go after her, but quietly. We'll see who she's meeting and catch them all in the act."

Graynose agreed, and called together three of his pack to join in the chase. It was almost dark, so they were all wide-awake and up for a good hunt through the trees. The group started out.

The girl's train was plain as day. She hadn't even bothered to leave the path. Jack wondered who she thought she was kidding. She hadn't struck him as a particularly naïve or foolish person, so why was she pulling a stunt like this? Hadn't he just proved he'd follow her if she disappeared?

Doubts started to surface unbidden in Jack's mind. What if, despite everything, Graynose was still right? What if his prisoner was just blowing off steam by taking a walk, and happened to be heading in the wrong direction? She'd certainly been in a temper when she left, or she wouldn't have dared to turn her back on Jack while he was angry. For all she knew, he might spring on her from behind. The possibility of that grew slimmer, however, the closer they got to the clearing. It shouldn't take her this long to blow off her anger. Or she was just in really good shape and covered ground fast, which was also possible. Jack's head started to spin. Something about this situation didn't add up.

The coyotes ahead slowed their pace to a stalk as they approached the clearing. Jack soon found out why as he slowed his own pace: human voices were nearby. He stopped moving to listen carefully. Two male voices. He couldn't hear the girl. He slid closer, ears straining. Words began to come clear.

"…keep her?" one of them was saying. "She's a healer. You know how rare that is. She might be useful. We could threaten to snuff her helpless mentor if she disobeys us."

"Maybe," said the other. There was a thoughtful pause, then he spoke again, with authority. "No. The benefits don't outweigh the risks. This one's clever, and she's been trained by Typhoon. Odds are she'd find some way to escape and inform on us before she'd ever be of use."

"Then how are we going to do it? Have her walk to her own death, like the last one?"

"No. This requires some thinking about. Anything we do to her, we have to ensure she can't heal her way out of."

Jack could hardly believe what he was hearing. The girl he'd been so angrily pursuing was not only innocent, but it sounded as if she might soon be the victim! Peering into the clearing, he saw two men standing behind a fallen log on the nearest edge. Seated on the log was his original quarry, her back to him. One of the men held her mouth and right arm, while the other had the tip a small silver handgun pointed at her head.

Graynose appeared like a ghost beside Jack. _These two males are the ones we smelled before. Their scents are the same, _he said. Jack nodded.

The man holding the girl down stiffened. "What was that?"

_We've been heard, _Graynose said, even more quietly. _Attack now, while we still have some of the element of surprise. _He vanished into the brush.

Jack opened his mouth to protest, then shut it again, afraid of being heard. Much as his instincts clamored to attack, they battled a lifetime of training to protect the innocent. An assault might result in the girl's death, something Jack suddenly wanted to avoid at all costs. Ah, well, there was nothing to be done about it now. He couldn't call the coyotes back without giving away his position.

"Show yourself or the girl dies!" the second man was yelling into the trees.

Jack growled in response, and heard the coyotes respond with him. Then all four coyotes burst from the trees. Jack was a beat behind. To his shock, the man with the gun dropped it and fled, pursued by two coyotes. The other man let go of his prisoner, who surged to her feet. She blocked his reach for the dropped weapon with a well placed kick that forced him to reel backwards, clutching his wrist. She might have done more damage had he not begun to shapeshift at that moment. Within seconds she was facing not a very angry man, but a very angry tiger. She stumbled backwards, eyes wide.

The tiger leaped at her, inch-long claws fully extended. Without a thought, Jack charged between them, howling in pain as those claws tore at his own flesh instead of the girl's. He threw the tiger off and spun to face him, stumbling slightly as his bad shoulder protested the sharp turn. The tiger rolled to its feet and snarled, exposing gleaming white teeth.

They circled, two animals preparing for combat. Out of the corner of his eye, Jack saw the two remaining coyotes nosing the girl's knees, urging her to get away from the battle grounds. He didn't see whether she obeyed or not, because the tiger was charging.

They met in a clash of fur and claws. Jack used his superior weight to knock his opponent away quickly, but not before the claws raked several long, bleeding gashes down his arms. Jack stumbled backwards, and earned another throb from his shoulder as a reward.

They resumed circling. Jack was pleased to see a bloody spot on the tiger's shoulder where his own claws had connected. This time he attacked first, but the tiger dodged him and swiped at his side. He missed, but Jack felt the breeze.

Again and again they charged each other. Both began to pant as they circled, though neither conceded an inch of ground. Their slit-pupiled eyes, one pair blue, the other gold-green, flashed murderous fire as they glared at each other.

At last came the thing Jack had been dreading: the tiger, with a predator's instinct, had noticed his limp and aimed deliberately for his bad side. His shoulder buckled, unable to take the pressure, and he crashed to the ground. He heard a scream, but it sounded very far away. The tiger's jaws closed over his windpipe, cutting off his air supply. Jack choked and gasped and struggled, but he couldn't break that hold. His vision was going dark when the tiger abruptly let go. The last thing he saw before he passed out was the girl, wielding a tree branch like a baton, bashing the tiger around the head while the coyotes snarled and snapped at his heels.

What woke him was the burning pain of his wounds. He blinked, trying to focus, but the world spun crazily. "Is he gone?" he wheezed out, meaning the tiger.

"Yes, he's gone. I think he decided he couldn't beat us all in a straight fight," said a female voice. Jack tried to place it, and realized that he had no name to attach to that voice. He'd never asked the girl her name. This bothered him for some reason, but he couldn't summon the energy to fix the problem.

The voice was still speaking. "You've lost a lot of blood," it said. "This is going to be tough."

"What is?" he asked, still trying to make her face come into focus. All he really saw was a blur of black hair, and beneath that, two bright green points. _Green. Her eyes are green_, he thought, wondering why he hadn't noticed this before.

"I'm a healer, aren't I? I'm going to heal you. I only hope I've got enough energy to do the job. I'm not at my best at the moment. Now shut up and let me work. It'll be difficult enough without you chattering at me."

He felt the healing come as a soothing cool balm, flooding into his veins and quenching the fiery pain of his wounds. He sighed gratefully and relaxed. The coolness spread. He felt it circle the place where the bullet still rested in his shoulder and then withdraw, the ache lessening at its touch, though the old pain remained. The fog around his brain lifted, and with it, his eyesight focused and cleared. He saw the girl kneeling at his side, hands pressed against his ribcage, green light flickering around her outstretched palms. The light faded, and the girl slowly sat back, more clumsy than he'd ever seen her. Jack noticed a sheen of sweat on her forehead, and his sensitive ears heard her heart beating wildly as if she'd just been running. She swayed. The coyotes nosed in close, supporting her.

"Thanks, guys," she gasped.

Jack sat up so that he was no longer flat on his side and his eyes were level with hers. "What's wrong?" he asked, alarmed at her sudden weakness. "You're not hurt, too, are you?"

She shook her head with a tired smile. "No. It took more energy to heal you than I had to give away at the moment. But I appreciate the concern. I'll be fine…eventually."

"What do you mean, eventually?"

"What I really need is some water and a little food to restore some of the energy I expended, but I seem to remember someone saying that I wasn't to eat until I told him the truth."

"Oh, that." Jack felt his face burn with embarrassment. "But you were telling the truth, weren't you? You and your mother had nothing to do with those two goons."

"No, we didn't. But I wasn't completely honest with you, either. I thought _you_ were in league with them."

"_Me?_"

"I was wrong. But the murders…my mother and I…" She faltered, looking as though she might faint.

"Never mind. We can trade what dastardly deeds we thought the other was up to later." Jack got to his feet and picked her up, carrying her in his arms while he balanced carefully on his hind legs. It felt awkward, but he could manage.

_We'll go fetch some food for her, and meet you back at your den, _said Graynose, and he and his packmate bounded off into the trees.

"Where are they going?" asked the girl, leaning back with her eyes half closed.

"They're getting you some food. We'll see them again when we get back to my home."

"You can understand them." It wasn't a question.

"I can understand most animals," Jack said, but he didn't elaborate. Discussing the reason why would be too painful. Silence fell as they slowly made their way back down the path. Jack had almost convinced himself she'd fallen asleep when the girl spoke again.

"So, why'd you do it?"

"Do what?"

"Why'd you save me? I thought you thought I was in league with them."

Jack snorted. "Well, the gun to your head kinda put me on the right track. If not that, then the very involved discussion about how best to get rid of you without causing suspicion."

"Yeah, that might do it." He could hear a tremor of laughter in her voice. "They would have killed my mother, too, you know. They were expecting her to come poking around, and me to come after her. So I guess I should be thanking you twice. Once for my life, and once for hers."

Something warm filled Jack's chest. It was so strange to be thanked, after all this time. "Don't mention it. We're even, anyway, after tonight."

They were silent again for a moment. Then Jack swallowed, and said, "Here we are indebted to one another and we don't even know each others' names. What's yours?"

He felt her shoulders shake with a laugh. "I'm Erika Cavanaugh. My given name is Eriko, but only my mother calls me that. It means 'wisdom' in Japanese, for what that's worth. And I don't have a superhero name yet. Haven't started my solo year."

"I'm Jack. Jack Bruin. While I was active, they called me the Bear-man."

"Literal-minded of them."

Jack chuckled, startled at the sound. When was the last time he'd laughed, really? By the time he'd gotten over his shock, he realized that Erika had fallen asleep. The healing must really have exhausted her. He couldn't help feeling a bit guilty about that, since it was for him that she'd used up so much energy, but it was worth it to have at last caught a glimpse of the real trespassers in his forest. And to have the unexpected privilege of carrying an unprotesting woman in his arms.

_First guilt, now attraction, _he thought ruefully. _If I'm not careful, humanity might be catching._ He chuckled again at the thought, though the sound was slightly bitter. _If only it were that easy._

_

* * *

_

_Author's Note: I felt so bad about leaving you guys at that last cliff hanger that I buckled down and wrote the next chapter as fast as possible! It helps that my summer job is winding down and they're running out of things to keep me busy. I had almost a whole day to myself to write, punctuated by occasional filing. Unfortunately, school will be starting up soon, so once again I will be forced to resort to writing only when I can fit it in around homework and extracurriculars. Updates will come as often as I can manage, but taking two and potentially three history classes means a lot of reading, writing papers, and research. We'll see how it goes. Rest assured I will never abandon you! I'm enjoying this story too much for that. _

_SamoaPhoenix9_


	13. Fresh From the Fight

**Chapter 13**

_Disclaimer: Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Translation: I own nothing.  
_

Someone was shaking Erika gently. "We're here," a gruff voice said. Erika groaned. Her eyelids felt as though they weighed ten pounds each, but she managed to force them open. A pair of brilliant blue eyes set in a dark animal's face swam into focus above her. What had he said his name was? John? Jake? Jack, that was it.

_He has nice eyes, _she thought irrelevantly. _They don't quite match the rest of his appearance, but they're a nice color._ She started to drift off again, trying vainly to remember if she'd ever felt worse in her life.

A soft noise, somewhere between a hum and a growl, sounded from her left. "Some water maybe," said Jack's voice, as if in answer to a question. Something cool touched her lips, and she sipped at it, more out of instinct than anything else.

Immediately, her head began to clear. She took a few more sips of water, then tried to get her hands behind her so that she could sit. Seeing this, Jack put the water bottle down and propped her up using one of his huge paws

"Thanks," said Erika. Her voice sounded better than she'd expected, considering how tired she felt. She looked around. They were back at the converted picnic grounds, and dawn was just touching the grass in the clearing. A few coyotes ranged in various poses around the clearing. The one closest to her was one she recognized, the one with the silvery nose. He whined a little when he saw her looking at him.

"Graynose wants to know what happened to you," Jack translated. He grinned, showing a few too many pointed teeth for comfort, though it probably wasn't meant in a threatening way at all. "You should feel honored, you know. I've never seen him this concerned about a human before."

Graynose snorted at him scornfully, and Erika laughed. "I'm all right. This kind of thing has happened before, especially before I learned to control my powers and not use too much of my own personal energy to heal. This time, I didn't have much to spare. I just need some time to recover."

"You really shouldn't have used so much energy just for me. Those wounds weren't really life-threatening," Jack pointed out.

"I couldn't just leave you there," replied Erika, surprised. "Not after you'd just saved my life like that. That'd be an awful way of showing gratitude. I try to pay my debts right away, so they don't collect interest later. Besides, how else was I going to get any answers out of you if you could barely see straight?"

"True," Jack chuckled, the laugh in his voice a rumble of distant thunder. "Have some of the food the coyotes brought you, and we'll talk."

Once again, though it had clearly been thrown away, the food the coyotes had brought was remarkably edible. A few slices of cold pizza still in their box, an apple with only a few bruises, and several bottles of water.

"You first," she said around mouthfuls.

"There's not much to tell," answered Jack with a shrug. "The coyote pack came to me a few days ago with the news that someone had intruded into our territory, someone who did not smell quite human."

She saw where this was going. "In that clearing."

"Yes. I recognized the smell as belonging to two people with powers, and the tracks of one of them to a shapeshifter. We staked out the clearing to catch whoever was responsible."

"But why? They hadn't done anything to you."

Jack appeared startled for a moment, then relaxed. "I forgot. You don't think as an animal does. We must always protect our territory from encroachment."

"But—" she started, then silenced her objection. She had been going to finish with, "you're human," but thought better of it. This was just another in a series of strange statements he'd made that were probably better deciphered later. He cocked his head at her, but she shook hers. "Never mind. Go on."

"All right, if you'll stop interrupting. As I was saying, we staked out the clearing, and your mother appeared. Naturally, we assumed that she had something to do with it, so I knocked her out and brought her back here."

Graynose, who had been listening intently to this, growled. Jack glared at him and rolled his eyes, but translated. "Graynose says _we_ did no such thing, and that it was he who insisted your mother was innocent. But you have to admit the circumstances were suspicious!" he said defensively to both of them. "You can't blame me for thinking the way I did."

Erika didn't say anything, and after a moment he sighed. "So maybe I overreacted. Just a little bit. Anyway, I figured I'd get answers out of you eventually. But things didn't exactly go the way I thought they would, and there seems to be a lot of this story I'm missing out on. Why did those men want to kill you, anyway?"

"I'm not really sure," Erika replied. "They knew my mother—Typhoon to them—and I would be coming to investigate. I can only assume that they had something to do with the murders we were investigating."

"Yes. You started to say something about that back at the clearing. Who was killed, and why did Typhoon think it worth the time? Normally—"

"We leave investigation to the civilian police," Erika finished for him. "But these were different. They were superheroes, killed—"

"Doesn't the Board hire someone to investigate the deaths of heroes? A civilian PI?"

"I was getting to that. Will you quit interrupting me?" snapped Erika.

"I will if you will."

Erika opened her mouth, and shut it again. He had a point, and they both knew it. She glared at him. Usually it was only Mai who could make such a comment and get away with it, but Erika balked at making someone as huge as Jack too angry. Try as she might, she could not quite forget his claws, or his teeth. Instead of flaring up, she gritted her teeth and said, "All right. What I was going to say was that Barry and Celina were killed within a month of each other, in civilian dress. They both died in ways that the police would be apt to find unsuspicious, in situations that their training should have helped them avoid entirely. My mother thought it worth investigating, so I came along for the ride. Apparently someone was waiting for us. Several someones, if you count you and your coyote posse and those two."

"Hmmm," murmured Jack, his eyes faraway as he considered. "Is this just a systematic taking down of superheroes by learning their alter egos because someone has a vendetta? Or is it a way of keeping the superhero community in the dark about something that's going down by silencing people who might find out?"

"I can't decide," Erika admitted. "I'm inclined to think the latter, but there doesn't seem to be any good way to find out."

"Why not?"

"I seem to remember promising to stay here until you had answers. Answers that it turns out I can't give you."

"Oh, that." Erika got the sense that if Jack were in human form he would be flushing.

"Well, a promise is a promise. And I keep my word. Besides, unless I miss my guess you want to find out what's going on and stop it as much as I do. We may have better luck if we work together."

"True." Jack looked thoughtful again. "It might be safer for you to lay low for awhile anyway. The bad guys will get themselves back together eventually, and they know you're not dead. They'll come looking for you."

Erika narrowed her eyes. "Are you trying to protect me?"

"Certainly not!" he replied, his vehemence surprising her. "I learned long ago that women trained by the Academy are perfectly capable of handling themselves, whatever the situation. I was just suggesting that you protect yourself by not going home. Especially since these people seem to be in the business of finding out a superhero's alter ego and finishing them off that way."

Erika wasn't quite sure she bought this, but decided to let it go. She'd never met a superhero male yet who really believed a female, with or without powers, could take care of herself. The instinct to protect was too carefully cultivated by their training.

Jack didn't seem to notice her discomfort. In fact, he seemed a little annoyed as well. "So that's settled. I can't say I'm pleased; I thought we'd only be stuck with each other for a day or two. It's nothing against you personally," he added quickly when she opened her mouth indignantly, "But I'm not really used to human company anymore. Until two days ago I hadn't spoken to anyone but the coyotes and a few other animals in years."

"Why not?" asked Erika, hoping to finally have some answers to the mysterious comments wherein he seemed not to include himself with the human race. Instead, he turned his head away. Graynose and Erika watched him sympathetically. "I'm sorry," she said after a moment. "Don't tell me if you don't want to."

"Can't you figure it out?" His words were almost lost in an underlying growl. "You're a reasonably intelligent girl."

Erika considered for a few moments, piecing things together that she'd either observed or heard, and there it was. It occurred to her that she'd been very dense not to pick up on this before. At last, hoping she wasn't about to hurt him too badly by voicing it, she stated, "You can't shapeshift. You're stuck like this."

He got up and left the clearing without looking at her. Erika started to follow, but Graynose was suddenly there, forcing her to stop walking or trip over him. "I guess that means you think he needs some time to himself," she said, watching as Jack's huge, hairy back vanished silently into the trees. On the edge of her vision she saw Graynose nod. "You're probably right," she agreed, and went into the picnic pavilion, carrying the empty pizza box with her. When she looked again, the clearing was empty. The coyotes had disappeared into the trees as well. It occurred to Erika in her surprise that she'd read somewhere that coyotes were nocturnal creatures. They had probably just gone to sleep in preparation for a night hunting. Oh, well. She'd have to find other ways to entertain herself until evening, or until Jack decided to come back.

As it happened, the latter occurred first. Jack returned to the clearing about midafternoon to find Erika engaged in an improvised version of bocce, tossing out a small rock and then trying to hit it with a collection of slightly larger rocks. She knew he was there watching her, but she didn't break her concentration and acknowledge him until she'd finished throwing the last rock from her pile.

"Hello," she said at last, turning to face him.

"You're pretty good at that," was his comment. He nodded towards her target, which had a neat cluster of rocks piled around it.

She shrugged. "It's taken some practice. I think I've got the weight of all the different rocks down by now."

There was an awkward silence. Neither of them really wanted to look at the other, so they contented themselves with admiring the scenery until one of them felt ready to speak. After a minute or two had gone by, Jack said, "I suppose you want an explanation."

"Not if you don't want to give one. Everybody's entitled to their secrets, even if it drives other people crazy."

He actually smiled, though it was so thin she couldn't see the points of his teeth. "Very subtle. So I get to choose between living with a crazy person or telling someone who's practically a stranger my deepest, darkest secrets."

"Those you can certainly keep. I mean it when I say you're entitled to your secrets. I can live with being crazy."

He sighed. "I've been arguing with myself all day. I can't come up with any good reason for you not to know other than my own personal pride. It's like this. As you've probably guessed, I used to be able to shapeshift between this shape and my…my human form. I graduated from the Academy, went through my mentorship, did my solo year, and got my assigned district. Never had a partner; I really didn't see the use of working with other people when I could handle things perfectly well by myself. Sometimes I think that was where I made my biggest mistake. A partner might have stopped what happened that night before it ever started.

"Anyway, I was doing a stakeout on a series of robberies all over the district when I got a whiff of his scent. He was the same man who broke into my parents' restaurant killed them and my little sister when I had just started at the Academy."

"You were only seven?" Erika was horrified. At least she'd had some time with her father; she'd been twelve when he died. Seven seemed awfully young to lose both parents at the same time.

"I barely remember them." Jack's voice was matter-of-fact, but it was the same sort of voice Erika used when well-meaning people asked how she was holding together after losing her dad. Jack cleared his throat, sounding like a dog barking. "But the seed was planted. I wanted revenge for what he'd taken from me. At last, the chance I'd secretly wanted for most of my life tumbled right into my lap that night. I followed him. Unfortunately, being a shapeshifter comes with a price. If you stray too far into your animal instincts, they never let you go."

"Did you kill him?"

Jack winced, but this time he didn't look away. His slit-pupiled blue eyes were cold as he said, "Yes."

"So you're stuck as you are, because of that one mistake."

Now he did look away. "Yes."

"I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault."

"No, I'm sorry for making you talk about it. My curiosity…"

"You can't help asking," he hastened to add, "And I haven't exactly tried to keep it from you. Not that I can hide it, even if I really wanted to. You were bound to ask at some point." He tried to smile, and failed. "I'm glad we got this out of the way now rather than later down the road."

Erika racked her brains for something safe to change the subject to. "Ah…do you think the coyotes will keep bringing me food every night? Or will I have to go out and get food somehow?"

"They'll keep bringing it for as long as you want. They've taken a quite liking to you, Graynose says."

"I'm flattered." Erika smiled a real smile, and for a moment her innate fear of his size and teeth was forgotten. Staying here for awhile, until they could begin to get some real answers, might not be so bad as she'd thought.

* * *

_Author's Note: Sorry again for this taking so long. School has started up, and routines need to be settled into before I can allot time to work on non-school stuff. I haven't forgotten you all in my excitement at being back at school! Not much action in this chapter, but we needed to get a few things sorted out between Jack and Erika before they can start to trust each other. Keep a lookout for the next chapter._

_SamoaPhoenix9_


	14. Someone, Somewhere

**Chapter 14**

_Disclaimer: I do not own the plot, characters, or anything else that belongs to Disney. Setting, words, and other unimportant details belong to me._

"What are you going to do?"

"Huh?" Erika jerked upright from where she had been leaning over to contemplate the stream. She spun around on the rock she sat on. Jack stood behind her on all fours, which meant that their faces were nearly level.

"I said, what are you going to do?"

"About what?"

"About…about what's going on with those men. How are you going to figure out how to stop them?"

Erika felt her eyebrows come together. "Me? Aren't you going to help? I thought you wanted to find out what they were up to!"

"I do. But I belong here. First and foremost I have to protect my territory here at home."

"Listen to yourself," Erika said. She roughened her voice to imitate him. "'I have to protect my territory.' That's not what they taught us at the Academy. They taught us to use our abilities to protect people. And what better way than protecting our own from a serial killer?"

His teeth appeared in a snarl so hideous that Erika had to look away in spite of herself. "I am protecting someone else—you. Where will you go if this park is no longer safe for you?" he demanded.

"I—" Though Erika would dearly have loved to argue the point, she couldn't quite bring herself to do so. Much as she hated to admit it, despite the fact that she now knew the reason for his frequent bad moods, she still feared what he might do to her if she pushed her luck too hard. He might be sorry afterwards, but he could easily hurt her beyond even her ability to heal. Besides, he was right, to a degree. If she lost her refuge in the park, she'd have to find someplace else safe from which to conduct her investigation. It just irked her that he was refusing the most basic duty of a superhero.

He snorted when she didn't finish her sentence, unaware of her thoughts. "I thought so. What, precisely, is your plan?"

"I hadn't come up with one yet, really. I figured one would present itself, especially since we have no idea what we're up against. When your enemy has obviously spent a long time planning, it's a bad idea to…"

"…not take the time to plan at all before you rush in," finished Jack. He grinned at her surprise. "I went to the Academy too, remember? Old Mr. Allen said that all the time."

"How could I forget?" Erika smiled back. "I always thought he was a fine one to talk about rushing in. His power was super speed!"

Jack let out a bark of laughter that made Erika's heart jump for just an instant, but then she joined in. Jack said, "Maybe you never saw him at his best, though. He was my dorm supervisor for the first couple years. He watched out for me after my parents…" He trailed off, his blue eyes a little sad.

"Sometimes I miss the Academy," she admitted sympathetically. "Everything was simpler there. Pass your classes, learn to use your powers wisely to fight evil someday. Good and bad. Right and wrong."

"But it's not that easy."

"Out on the street, a lot of the thieves you bag are just trying to survive. They have families to feed. And things don't always work out with that perfect sense of poetic justice. Good people die. Bad people escape."

"I know what you mean." They were silent for awhile. Then Jack shook himself, causing his short brown fur to ripple all along his massive sides. "Well, it'll be dark soon. We should get going."

"Go where?" asked Erika, turning to look at him without moving off her rock.

He cocked his head at her. "You can't go running around trying to stop bad guys dressed like that, now can you? Your secret identity is still important. And you can't wear your trainee uniform, either. Too much of a giveaway if they're looking for Typhoon's trainee."

Erika crossed her arms. "So what exactly do you plan to do about that? I don't have my real uniform and superhero name yet."

"I think I know someone who can help us, at least with the uniform part. Come on. Start thinking about that name as we walk. We should be on the eastern edge of the park by dark."

"I thought you had to stay and guard your territory," said Erika, though she made certain not to sound as if she were mocking him this time.

He raised one of his heavy brows at her, such a human expression that for a moment she thought she could see a bit of what his face must once have looked like: a humorous smile, and a pair of wickedly twinkling eyes that promised mischief. She blinked, and the moment was gone.

"I think the coyotes can hold down the fort for a few hours, don't you?"

"I guess so. You know them better than I do," she admitted.

"They have a vested interest in keeping this park as human-free as possible. Well, let's go then." He led the way into the trees.

It took them about half an hour to reach the eastern edge of the park, and by then the last of the day's light was gone. Erika had given up on asking where they were going. Jack ignored such questions with a will. Once they emerged from the trees, he led them on a seemingly random route that seemed mostly to consist of back alleys and rooftops. Erika climbed the ladders of fire escapes while Jack scaled their outsides, delicately hooking his claws around the thin metal bars. It seemed to Erika almost a miracle that no one spotted them during their entire progress, though they made surprisingly little noise.

At last they came to a small townhouse that needed a few repairs to its brick façade but was otherwise in decent shape.

"Knock on the door," urged Jack when Erika hesitated. "Don't worry; I'll be right behind you. If I tried to do it the chances are good I'd knock the door clean off its hinges."

Erika smiled at this picture and tapped politely on the door. When no one answered, she tried again, harder. This time, she heard heavy footfalls inside that sounded like boots. There were a few clicks as locks were undone, and the door swung open to reveal a tall man with a weathered face. Erika had been right about his footwear: he wore faded leather cowboy boots, with fraying jeans tucked into them and a collared shirt tucked into those. Erika half-expected to see a ten-gallon hat on his flyaway gray hair. His eyes, in shadow from the flickering porch light, darted over Erika to settle on the darkness behind her.

"Jack," he breathed. He held open the door. Erika hesitated, but a cold nose in the small of her back shoved her forward. She stumbled up a step into the house, then quickly got out of the way so that Jack could squeeze himself inside.

"This way." The man led them to the back of the house, where a kitchen and living room combined was illuminated by a single overhead light. Once Erika was settled on the room's sole couch with Jack in a corner beside her, the man flicked on a few more lights and pulled out a kitchen chair to sit facing them.

"Jack, sonny, it's good to see you again. I s'pose we'll get to explanations eventually," the man said, his slight Texas twang as faded as his jeans. He smiled at Erika, fanning out wrinkles from his brown-flecked gold eyes. "Howdy, ma'am. I'm Bill Albert, but you can just call me Tex. Almost everyone who knows me does."

"Tex was my mentor when I was a trainee," Jack explained. "Tex, this is Erika Cavanaugh. She's a…recent acquaintance of mine."

"It's nice to meet you," said Erika. She extended a hand, and Tex gave it a firm shake. His palms were heavily calloused, she noted, almost like feeling the pads of a dog's foot. "I take it you're a shapeshifter, too?"

"Ah, so you're one of us, then. Makes things easier. Good to meet you too, kid." His sharp eyes trained on Jack. "How'd you come to meet such a pretty one as this, sonny? I thought you'd given up on humanity years ago!"

Erika looked to Jack for an explanation, but he kept his eyes on Tex. "I have. But it seems that I can't escape it so well as I thought." He winced and shifted position, and Erika remembered the feeling of her healing sliding around an old wound in one shoulder, one she hadn't had the strength to fix at the time. Jack continued, "Anyway, Erika and I find ourselves sharing a common purpose for the time being. She's a trainee, but for the time being she needs to pass as a full hero. Undercover work. D'you think you can help us out?"

"Hmm. I see. A strictly professional relationship."

"Totally."

Tex leaned back in his chair, considering. He looked at Erika. "What are your powers, girl?"

"I'm a healer."

"Are you, now?" Erika could have sworn those gold-brown eyes shot to Jack, for just an instant. Then they were back on her, crinkled at the corners in a smile. "Well that makes things right easy, don't it? No special accommodations for the uniform at all. You can imagine how hard it is for we shapeshifters. I won't go into all the gory details." He smiled at her, inviting her to share his amusement.

"So can you help us or not?" Jack demanded roughly.

Tex's smile deepened as if he were enjoying a private joke, but all he said was, "I think I might have something. Give me a sec and I'll check." He stood up and left the room. They could hear his boots clunking up a set of steps and walking around on the floor above.

"How did you know he'd have anything at all?" Erika asked Jack after a few moments of staring at the ceiling.

"Tex went inactive on the hero list a few years ago; though as you know he can still be called up in emergencies. His cover was—is—a clothing sales rep for a big southwestern company based in Austin, Texas. In retirement, he operates as a supplier for superhero uniforms. He makes lots of them here himself."

Erika couldn't suppress a giggle. "He doesn't look like the kind of man who can sew."

"How else can a lifelong bachelor survive, missy? Ya gotta know some things." Tex was back, carrying a bundle in his arms. He unrolled the uniform and held it up. "I think this'll fit you."

"Oh, no. I will _not_ wear Spandex," Erika declared, folding her arms.

"Your other choice is bright red Lycra. I didn't think that was your kinda thing, but it's all I got in your size at the moment. Take it or leave it," answered Tex. He chuckled at the look of revulsion on Erika's face. "Sorry, kiddo. Custom jobs take some time, which I assume the two of you don't have. Here, head into the bathroom down the hall and slip this on. I'll see if I need to make any last-minute adjustments."

Grumbling under her breath, Erika took the uniform behind the door he indicated and slipped it on. She examined herself in the floor-length mirror on the back of the door. Even though she was still a little annoyed about the Spandex, she had to admit she didn't look too bad. The uniform was a green so dark it was almost black, shot through with occasional shimmering threads of a slightly lighter green like emeralds. The full-length sleeves were not attached to the main body in the conventional way, but by many half-inch wide strips of fabric that reached to halfway down her bicep. Her hands were left free so that she could heal through direct touch. The cuffs and high collar were a slightly lighter green, as were the knee-length flexible boots. Other than those few decorations, the uniform was relatively plain. This suited her need for stealth, but it was stylish nonetheless. Taking a deep breath, she unlatched the door.

Tex let out a low whistle when she emerged from the hallway. "Coulda been made for you, honey. Great work, if I do say so myself."

Jack said nothing, and it was hard to read any expression on that dark face that was more animal than human. If she'd had to guess, she would have said he looked awed.

She blinked, telling herself it was rude to stare. "Tex, the uniform fits perfectly. Thank you. There's only one thing missing."

"Oh, sure thing! Your mask. Here." Tex handed her a black mask that covered the whole top half of her face and tied behind her head. "The string has steel threads running through it. It'll be darn hard to cut if anyone tries. You'll have to figure out what to do with your hair, though."

"Thanks." Erika pulled the mask over her head. She struck a pose. "How do I look?"

"Nice," said Jack.

"That's all?"

"What else do you want me to say?" he demanded. "You do look heroic, if that's what you'd rather hear."

"I guess that works." Erika removed the mask and examined it. She didn't know _what_ she'd really wanted him to say. It wasn't in her nature to fish for compliments; what had gotten her started now?

"Leave it on," said Jack. "No sense taking chances on our way back."

"You're leavin' me already?" drawled Tex. He pulled the laughing creases around his mouth down into an exaggerated frown. "But we haven't gotten the chance to catch up yet! You can't just waltz in here, demand my help, and waltz out again. The price is at least a bit of conversation before you slide off the face of the earth again with your new girlfriend here."

"I'm not—" Erika started to protest indignantly, at the same time that Jack said, in exactly the same tone, "She's not—"

Tex grinned at them both. "All right, so you're not. I knew that. I was only teasing." But Erika thought he sounded pleased about something. "I do mean it when I say you have to stay and tell me what's been going on with you, Jack. I've a vested interest in your welfare, sonny, after I put a year keeping your hide alive. You don't have to tell me anything about Erika or why she needs her disguise; I know some things are secret for a reason. But I do want to hear about you."

"There's not much to tell," growled Jack, the words almost lost.

"I bet there's something." Tex settled himself into his chair, and Erika sat back on the couch with her mask still in her hands. She could tell this was going to take some time.

* * *

Not far away, in Bethesda Naval Hospital, Typhoon lay in a hospital bed. She was still recognizably Typhoon; the thoughtful hospital attendants had removed her uniform and put her in a hospital gown but were careful to keep as much of her face covered as possible with various medical masks. They had treated superheroes before, and they knew the procedures.

A nurse came in to check the IV line attached to Typhoon's wrist. "Poor thing," she said as she made notes on her chart. "Somebody really did a number on you. Good thing we got to you in time." She patted the older woman's hair gently and rearranged the covers on the bed. "Don't worry," she said softly as she headed for the door, "Nobody but a few of the staff knows you're here. Your secret is safe with us._  
_

* * *

_Author's Note: I feel like I'm always apologizing for something in every chapter. This time I apologize to you all for how long each chapter's taking and the lack of action in this chapter. I promise the next one will contain some excitement. As for time, school is starting to suck away more and more of my free time with every passing day. Plus I have a few other stories in the works that demand my attention. I'm doing my best here, so bear with me. Hope you're enjoying, and please review!_

_SamoaPhoenix9_


	15. Reaching Back for Me

**Chapter 15**

_Disclaimer: I don't own Belle, Beast, Gaston, Lefou, Maurice, or anyone else who has shown up thus far in my fun little rip-off. Oh, and I don't own Flash (of Justice League fame), either. He was referenced in the last chapter._

"Is it just me, or does he like to talk?" asked Erika. They had finally managed to escape from Tex's townhouse, but it was several hours later than Jack had originally had in mind.

"I'd forgotten," he admitted as they made their way down yet another fire escape. "On patrol you normally can't get a word out of him unless it's absolutely necessary. I think he makes up for it by being talkative the rest of the time." He heard Erika chuckle. Though he could still see her fairly well thanks to his cat's-eye night-vision, he doubted many other people could. The dark cloth of her uniform combined with her natural grace and stealth made her virtually invisible as she moved through the dark.

"He's a shapeshifter, right?" she asked. "What's his alternate form?"

"Gray wolf," Jack grunted, heaving himself onto the next rooftop.

"I thought so. He's got that look that freezes you in your tracks whether you want to stop or not," Erika said as she pulled herself up beside Jack with a little help from the paw he held out to assist her. "Thanks." She dusted her hands off to rid them of concrete grime and glanced out over the rooftops of the city, crested in the distance by the glowing Washington Monument and Capitol dome.

"Tex is the master of that look. It's why he maintained the reputation as one of the best even when statistically he should have been past his prime," Jack told her. However, his mind wasn't completely on his words. Instead, his eyes drifted towards the paw that he'd unthinkingly held out to lift her onto the roof, and that she'd taken without hesitation. _She let me pull her up,_ he thought. It was a gesture that implied a certain amount of trust. She had to know that he wouldn't let go and drop her, or even pull too hard and wrench her arm. _Stop it. You're reading way too much into this,_ he scolded himself. Still, he couldn't deny that a small amount of trust from someone else gave him a weird feeling inside. He hadn't trusted himself for years.

"Are you all right?" Erika's voice broke into his thoughts. He realized that he was still staring at his hand. Paw. What had gotten into him?

"Yeah, fine." He shook himself briskly. "I thought I did something to my paw, but it was just my imagination. We should keep going." All the time, he was thinking, _I've got to get away for awhile. Just being around her makes me think like I'm human again. A dangerous line of thought. If I go down that path, who knows where the depression will take me once she's gone for good?_

"Right." She glanced back over the rooftops again.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

She shrugged. "I was just thinking about our territory. Mine and Typhoon's. It hasn't been patrolled in days. Who knows what's been happening while we've been away?"

Here was the solution to his immediate problems, in more than one way. "Why don't you go do your rounds, then?" he suggested.

"What?" She spun to face him, green eyes wide behind her mask.

"Go patrol. You know how to get back to the park. I'll see you there when you get back." He grinned when she looked skeptical. "Who better than me understands the need to protect your territory?"

The wide eyes narrowed instantly in a glare. "You're hilarious. I almost think you don't mean it and you're just saying that to tease me."

"No, no!" he protested, though he knew he still sounded amused. "All teasing aside. I mean it. Go patrol. I'll see you later."

"Really?"

"I promise. Go on."

"All right, then." He watched her hop over to the next roof and slide over the edge. He could only presume that there was another fire escape there, since he didn't hear her fall. Sure enough, when he peered over the edge of his roof, there she was at the mouth of the next alley over. She glanced around, saw him watching her, gave him a thumbs-up, and took off down the street at a fast, ground-eating trot. Within seconds she was out of sight.

Jack sighed. Now that she was out of the vicinity, he could think clearly again. He glanced at his paw and shuddered. _Oh, God, physical attraction, _he thought miserably. _What next?_

But now Erika was gone, for a few hours at least. He'd have the clearing to himself for awhile. Even the coyotes would be elsewhere, off on their evening's foray into the city.

He got about two blocks in the direction of the park before thoughts of Erika intruded again. This time worry was thrown into the mix. For all that she talked and acted like an adult, and as professional as she looked in her new Spandex, she was still just a trainee. Barely a year out of the Academy. What if she ran into trouble she couldn't handle? Or worse yet, what if the superhero serial killers were lying in wait? It took only a few seconds' mental debate before Jack was loping back in the direction he'd come.

Erika was easy enough to track; she had no reason to hide her trail. From the combination of smells at one corner, she'd already halted a robbery, apparently without much trouble. Despite this hopeful sign and against his better judgment, Jack continued to tail her.

He finally caught up a few blocks after the foiled robbery. As soon as he knew he was getting close, Jack climbed the nearest building with a fire escape to make certain she wouldn't catch him following her. On their long trek to Tex's house, she'd stated her preference for avoiding rooftops unless necessary several times. He peered over the edge of the roof, watching for the slightest sign of movement. Sure enough, there was Erika a block or so ahead, sliding through the shadows like the well-practiced vigilante that she was.

Soft whimpers reached Jack's sensitive ears. He jerked around and saw, another block ahead of Erika, a circle of bent-over backs. That was bad; if Jack was any judge, it meant some sort of gang activity. Counting heads, he estimated that there were at least ten of them, surrounding whatever they had trapped. And Erika had noticed. She was making her way purposefully forward, not even bothering to keep to the shadows anymore. Jack swore silently, and made his way across the rooftops until he was within a house or two of the disturbance. Ten people was a lot for one person to take on, even for someone as competent as Erika seemed to be.

Only once he was settled into a position where he could see and hear as well as quickly leap to the rescue did Jack turn his attention back to what was actually happening below. Erika stood just out of arm's reach of the closest turned back, feet well balanced, arms relaxed at her sides. There was absolutely nothing hostile in her posture; but for her mask and Spandex uniform she might have been an interested observer. Pointedly, she cleared her throat. Jack had to muffle a laugh at the understatement of the gesture.

Heads turned in the group. Eyes widened. Jack's eyes detected a dark streak between their legs as whatever they'd been tormenting made its escape—probably a cat, he guessed.

"Well, lookee what we got," said one of the boys in the group. He was probably the leader; he was the biggest and had the most scars. Jack guessed he was maybe of an age with Erika, but he had a good fifty pounds and three inches on her.

"You know, torturing animals isn't a good prediction of sound mental health later on in life," said Erika conversationally, as if she were speaking to a group of mutual acquaintances about the weather.

Perhaps she was. She had to know this gang; they were in the territory she and Typhoon patrolled. "Oh, it's you again," said one of the other boys. "Why you dressed so different, girl?"

"An' where's your watery partner?" asked the leader, with a nasty leer.

"It's just me tonight, here to remind you of your manners as always," Erika replied with a shrug. "Now why don't you boys go find something a little less destructive to play with?"

Several of the gang members looked ready to do just that, but the leader took a half-step forward as if Erika had just issued an open challenge. She was within grabbing range now, but she didn't move. "I don't think you should be the one givin' orders around here," snarled the leader. "I seen you. You ain't so tough without your partner to watch your back. You ain't got any powers like she do."

Jack's eyes automatically flicked to Erika to see how she would take this insult. Her fingers twitched as if she wanted to ball them into fists but restrained herself in time. A muscle jumped high on her cheekbone. Slowly and deliberately, she said, "Do you really want to test me on that?"

Jack didn't think he would have, in the leader's place. Even from the top of the roof he was intimidated by the steel in Erika's tone, but maybe that was because he already had considerable respect for her nerve. In any case, the leader seemed to take her words as a further challenge rather than a warning. He reached forward with a snarl. Before anyone could blink, he was already flying backwards from the quick punch Erika had scissored into his chin. There were yells from the other gang members. Jack heard the hiss of switchblades and tensed, ready to interfere should Erika find herself outnumbered a little too badly.

It became obvious within seconds that Erika had things well in hand. Watching her move in and out of the flying feet, fists, and blades was like having box seats at a one-sided dance competition. She dodged and wove with an ease that Jack had never been able to achieve even fighting in his human form. But then this was how she had survived, he reminded himself. She had no other tricks up her sleeve to rely on but her own speed and strength.

One by one she neatly incapacitated each member of the gang who came at her, mostly with blows to the jaw, the stomach, or the knees. In the space of about two minutes seven of the ten gang members were lying in groaning piles on the ground. The remaining three, who'd wisely chosen not to take part in the fight, were staring at the wary Erika with the same sort of awe Jack felt. He noticed that two of the three switchblades he'd heard were now in Erika's hands, their blades withdrawn. She'd been using their hilts as brass knuckles, to give her punches more meaning. The third blade lay on the ground at her feet. When she was certain there were no more attacks coming, she straightened from her fighter's crouch with a short huff of breath. Her shoulders were heaving, but she maintained her composure.

"Check them," she ordered the three gaping boys. "I don't think I did any permanent damage, but I want to make sure I didn't do serious harm before I go."

Deprived of any other form of leadership but this brisk young woman, they obeyed her without question. Erika sorted through the seven bodies. She healed a few broken fingers and a cracked rib or two. Then she came to the gang leader, who was groaning and clutching his jaw where she'd punched him.

"Let me see that," she said, holding out one hand. He pushed her aside with a curse that turned into a half-scream of pain. Erika ignored this, saying matter-of-factly, "I thought so. Cracked jawbone. It happens sometimes when I'm rushed. Clumsy, but I'm a little out of practice." She beckoned to one of the younger boys who had stayed out of the fight. "C'mere and help me hold him down. I don't want him trying anything funny while I fix his jaw, or he might end up with a permanently crooked face for you all to laugh at."

That was enough, it seemed, to quiet the gang leader. He held still and let Erika look carefully at his jaw, and then put two hands firmly on either side of his face and use a spurt of her green healing to fix it. When she was finished, she dusted her hands off as if she'd just handled something grimy.

"Never," she said, so softly that Jack had to strain to hear, "tell me I don't have power. Not after I just saved you months of pain every time you take a bite, not to mention doctor's bills and so on." She stood in one fluid movement and addressed all of the gang members. "Be careful who you insult in the future. You never know when someone you think is helpless might grow teeth. And they probably won't be as nice afterwards as I am. In fact, that's almost a guarantee. See you around, boys." With that pronouncement, she walked off down the street, leaving the entire gang—and Jack—staring after her in disbelief.

An hour later, after he'd made his way back to his clearing to wait for Erika to return, he still couldn't fathom why she'd let them get off so lightly. Sure, she'd proved to them, and him, that she could handle herself without question. But then she'd healed them of wounds _she'd_ inflicted. She could have let them live with the pain, to teach them a lesson. She should have.

But she hadn't. And that was what Jack couldn't get over. They'd deserved the hurts she'd doled out. Kill or be killed; it was the law of the jungle—and of the streets. They'd deserved punishment, but Erika had shown them mercy.

Jack frowned. That last thought had sounded suspiciously like one of those moldy old sayings he'd been fed over the years in the Academy. Jack had always favored the sayings that trended more towards the hard-line form of justice where those who had done wrong got exactly what they deserved. Heck, deep down he even admitted that he deserved to be punished for what he'd done on that night over five years previously. Justice had been served.

Erika's simple act of healing and then walking away had shaken him deeply. He knew she wasn't soft; the fact that she had beaten those idiots rather than simply used her skills to escape them proved that much. But then…why?

Jack was tired of trying to figure Erika Cavanaugh out. And he was willing to bet that this wouldn't be the last time she'd surprise him_  
_

* * *

_Author's Note: I don't know about you, but I'm enjoying this dynamic between Jack and Erika. It's something I didn't expect when I started to write this story. By no means will these two fall in love easily!_

_Anyway, I promised you guys more action in this chapter. How'd I do? It was fun to write, which is always a good sign._

_Until next time,_

_SamoaPhoenix9_


	16. Rising with the Heat

**Chapter 16**

_Disclaimer: Fun history fact: back before copyright, it used to be that there was no such thing as 'intellectual property'. In fact, plagiarizing was considered a compliment to the original writer. So was writing something of your own and saying it was by someone famous. As long as it was in the spirit of the original it was OK and no one really minded. Unfortunately, those days aren't these days, so I must acknowledge that I am a shamelessly evil copyright violator and I really don't own Beauty and the Beast._

It was about two in the morning, by Jack's estimate, when Erika returned to the clearing. He had actually fallen asleep, but woke quickly when his sensitive ears warned him that someone was coming. He easily recognized Erika's footfalls. By the time she actually emerged from the trees, he was coming out of the pavilion to greet her.

She'd already removed her mask. "Did you enjoy the show?" she asked sweetly.

It took Jack's sleep-dazed brain a few seconds to process the implications of this. "You saw me?" he finally managed, then cursed himself. Were he not half asleep, he would have played dumb. Maybe she'd be furious that he'd followed her. _He_ would have been annoyed if someone else had so obviously questioned his ability to do his job right.

"I'm not angry," she said with a smile, as if reading his mind. "Under other circumstances I might have been. But you should have seen your face…" she trailed off into giggles while Jack watched dumbfounded. This wasn't the reaction he'd expected at all. It occurred to him that he ought to say something in his own defense.

"I…" he started.

She held up a hand. "You don't have to explain. In retrospect going off like that might not have been so smart a move. You might even have been right to follow me. I was lucky it hasn't occurred to those guys from the clearing to stake out my patrol route and see what they can catch."

Since this had been part of Jack's original rationale in following her in the first place, he didn't argue. Instead, he swallowed hard and said, "So you knew I was watching?"

"I suspected you might try to follow me, but—"

"What made you think I'd try to follow you?"

She smiled a little ruefully. "Just a hunch."

"Come on. You can't know me that well already," Jack prodded.

"Well, in a way I do. I've spent quite a bit of time around people trained by the Academy. I know how hard they work to cultivate that protective instinct in us all. It's hard to fight." She crooked one shoulder in a half-shrug. "Believe me, I understand. You see someone you think might be in trouble, and _bam_, you're off."

"It was partially that," admitted Jack. Then something made him blurt, "But I also didn't want to see anything happen to you."

She blinked, startled, but then she actually smiled, just a little bit. "Oh. Thanks."

"But I figured out pretty quickly that that wasn't necessary at all. You're…good. You're very good. I was never that fast, even…before. And that trick with the switchblades was amazing. I didn't even see you palm them."

She shrugged modestly. "It's something one of the newer athletic coaches at the Academy taught me. I can show you sometime, if you want."

"It seems like a worthwhile trick to know," Jack agreed. "And I won't try to follow you again. You've more than proven you can watch your own back."

"Well…" Erika twisted the mask in her hands, an oddly uncomfortable gesture from her. "I was actually hoping when I go out tomorrow night…you'll come with me."

"What?" Jack recoiled. "I thought I already explained that to you. I have to stay here and—"

"Protect your territory. I remember. But you also said that you understood the _need_ to protect your territory. And you're right; I have that instinct too, though for me it's not so much the territory itself as the people—and animals—in it. I can't do that by myself; not with these guys possibly dogging my every step with a sniper rifle pointed at my head." Her matter-of-fact tone shifted, ever so slightly. Now Jack could hear just a hint of pleading. "You wouldn't even have to walk with me. You could stay on the roofs. But I could use the extra pair of eyes."

Jack opened his mouth to refuse her, and closed it again. She was right, of course. And he hadn't lied when he had said he didn't want anything to happen to her. "Let me think about it," he growled, by way of buying time.

Her face brightened. "Thank you! I'll give you some time to think. Right now what I need most is sleep. Good night." She headed for the converted pavilion, covering a yawn. As she passed him, she gave Jack's bad shoulder what might have been interpreted as friendly squeeze. He was about to protest the contact when he saw the residual green glow around her hand. The aching and stiffness from climbing up and down fire escapes lessened considerably. By the time he fully realized what she'd done, she was already vanishing into the shelter.

"Thank you," he called after her. She waved slightly—no problem—without turning around. He heard her moving around out of sight, but he didn't bother to follow her into the pavilion.

She'd touched him intentionally. Allowing him to pull her onto the roof might be written off as just as absentminded instinct, but this had been deliberate. It didn't even matter how she knew that his shoulder hurt at all. She'd touched him without a shudder of horror for what he was. Jack rubbed his shoulder lightly with one paw, trying to recapture just a little of the warmth he'd felt. Still smiling, he chose one of the larger trees on the edge of the clearing and curled up beneath it to finish the night's sleep.

It seemed that he'd just barely closed his eyes when the daylight was stabbing cheerfully through the trees. Jack blinked and looked around. His sharp ears told him that the deep, even breathing from the shelter was Erika, still fast asleep. Not wanting to disturb her, Jack left and headed down to the stream. As he drank, a sparkle of sunlight on the water caught his eye. He raised his head, muzzle dripping, and peered at the moving stream. His own distorted reflection looked back. Jack grimaced at it out of habit, but without his usual active dislike.

"Good morning," said Erika from behind him. Jack managed not to jump, but it was a close thing. He'd been so caught by his reflection, he hadn't even heard her coming.

"Morning," he replied.

She slid down the embankment to join him. "I've been meaning to ask: is this water safe to drink?"

"Safe enough," he grunted with a shrug, trying not to stare at her. Even sleep-tousled and in her dirty old civilian clothes, she was still attractive.

"Good," she said, unaware of his fidgets. "The water the coyotes bring always tastes like plastic." She knelt down, drank a little, then splashed her face. Jack waited a few seconds to see if she was going to say more, then turned his attention back to his own drink. The next thing he knew, the right side of his head from ear to snout was soaking wet. He turned in shock to see Erika with both hands pressed over her mouth to hold in her laughter.

"You—" Jack dug a paw into the water and heaved. Erika's reflexes allowed her to dodge some of the subsequent wave, but they didn't prevent her from getting pretty wet all the same. She glared at him, shook her hair out of her face, and then deliberately reached down.

"Don't you dare," Jack growled. Erika's mouth stretched out in a grin that showed all of her teeth. So fast he almost didn't see it, her hand streaked out and splashed more water on him. This shot hit him full in the face, causing him to blink and splutter. By the time he'd gotten the water out of his eyes, she had already scrambled up the embankment and back towards the clearing.

"You're not getting away that easy!" Jack yelled. He went charging after her, seized her around the waist, and slung her into the middle of the stream where the water was deepest. She landed flat on her back with an enormous splash and a scream of shock.

She sat up and wiped the water off her face, then shook out her hair like an offended cat. It was so comical a picture that Jack had to laugh.

"These are my only clothes," she complained, wringing out one sleeve deliberately. "Now they're all wet."

"You should have thought of that before you messed with me," Jack retorted, shaking his own head and causing water droplets to go flying off the soaked fur.

"Oh, well. They needed a wash anyway," Erika said, standing up in a rush of stream water. "And it's going to be hot today. We'll dry off quick enough."

"How do you know it's going to be hot?" asked Jack as they scrambled up the embankment together.

"I usually know what the weather's going to be for the next day or so. It's not even really a power, it's just a knack. _Haha_—my mother, she told me her mother could do it too. Water powers, and so on. Daddy used to say that if I hadn't gone the superhero track so early in life I would have made the world's best meteorologist."

"What are your parents like?" Jack asked impulsively, then recoiled at his own insensitivity. "I'm sorry. I don't have any right to ask that."

Erika smiled a little and said, "No, that's all right. I don't mind telling you. My mother, she's originally from Japan. She trained in a completely different superhero discipline than the system we have in America. Here we tend to focus on crime prevention. Over there, they mostly focus on damage control from natural disasters, since they have so many. Pulling people out of burning buildings, rescuing from floods and landslides and so on.

"She moved to the United States because she wanted to learn crimefighting techniques. She met my father here in D.C, fell in love, got married, and never went back. Her father wasn't too happy about that; he had somebody else back in Japan lined up to marry her. They still do that kind of thing over there. Fortunately that guy was in love with someone else, too, so it all worked out in the end. We just don't talk to my _O'jisan_ and _O'basan_ —grandparents in Japanese—all that much. _O'jisan_ never quite forgave my mother for 'running out on her family duty.' _Haha_ likes to pretend she's nothing like her father, but comparing her with her stories of him I think they're a lot alike. She's big into hard work and discipline, and she's also very stubborn, tenacious, and hardheaded."

"Sounds like someone I know," was Jack's comment. Erika glared at him, but did not retort. They had reached the clearing by this point. Erika chose a spot in the sun to sit down and dry off, and Jack settled himself nearby to continue listening.

"My father's family is from Ireland. I get my healing powers from them. Daddy was so much fun to be around. He and _Haha_ were partners when she came to America, and they were inseparable after that. They were so different; I never understood how they managed to get along as well as they did. I guess it was more of a meeting of minds than because they were interested in the same things. They both loved being superheroes, though. _Haha_ still does, of course, although she was angry for awhile after Daddy…" she trailed off.

Jack waited. When she didn't continue, he said, "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. Everyone's entitled to some secrets."

"And I love having my own words fed back to me." Erika managed a small smile. "Daddy was killed when I was twelve. He and _Haha_ were out patrolling, and they were ambushed. Daddy took the bullet that was meant for _Haha_. He died almost immediately, which is how we found out that a healer can't fix every hurt he or she is dished out. _Haha_ went crazy. She still won't talk about some of the things she did to the guys who ambushed them." She sighed. "Sometimes I wonder how things might have been different if Daddy hadn't decided to take that bullet. Maybe I'd still have both of them."

"Or maybe not. You said yourself that there are things even healers can't fix."

"I know that," she snapped, but this time Jack wasn't put off by her temper. He recognized some of his own pain in her eyes.

"Rationalizing and playing 'what-if' are a nice ways to deal with the pain, but they eventually lead to dead ends," he said. "Believe me, I know how that goes. But you also can't harbor your anger. If you do…well, I'm living proof of where that can lead." He held out a massive paw to illustrate.

Erika looked at the outstretched paw. Surprisingly, she didn't shudder. Instead, her face relaxed. She raised her head and looked Jack straight in the eyes, and said, very simply, "Thank you."

"You're welcome." Jack didn't even need to ask what she was thanking him for. Without having the words, he was pretty sure he knew already. In fact, he almost felt that he should be thanking her for the same thing.

When Erika left the clearing that night in mask and Spandex to patrol, by unspoken understanding Jack went with her._  
_

* * *

_Author's Note: I know you guys like fluff, and so do I! That's half the fun of Beauty and the Beast. So I wrote this chapter. In this case, Beauty has her own bitterness and hurt to overcome, but now that we're relatively past that for both of them the sparks can really start flying! Oh, and we'll start getting back to the rest of the characters and what they're up to, too._

_SamoaPhoenix9_


	17. Sweep Me Off My Feet

**Chapter 17**

_Disclaimer: I predict that someday Disney will start auctioning off shares in the rights to their most popular movies on eBay. When they do (if ever) I'll be there waiting. Until that unlikely day, they own Beauty and the Beast and I do not. :(_

_Oh, and I don't own "The Power of Love," as sung by Celine Dion, either, the lyrics of which show up later on in this chaper._

Several days later, there was still no sign of the men they'd encountered in the clearing, though they had patrolled together each night. Perhaps Jack's unexpected presence was making them cautious. At least, that was Erika's private opinion. In any case, the nights on patrol had been relatively uneventful apart from the usual robberies, muggings, and gang activities that went on every night within any given district of Washington D.C. Taking care of these helped cure Erika's restless nerves at the fact that they were no nearer to solving this case, as well as her nagging worries about Mai.

Tonight, however, there would be some real excitement. The gang leader whose jaw Erika had broken and then healed had informed her casually of a planned holdup of a wedding, of all things. Some ambassador's daughter was getting married at a hotel in Erika's district, and it had been spread by word of mouth through the local crime networks for the small-time criminals to stay away.

"Do you know why?" Erika had asked upon hearing this news.

"Nah, but I can guess somethin' major's goin' down," had been the answer. The gang leader had looked around nervously. "Now look, you didn't hear it from me. This is just to make sure we're straight from the other night, right?"

Erika smiled and mimed zipping her lips. "Sure."

"What about…it? Him?" The young man jerked his chin at the hulking shadow in the next alley behind Erika.

"Who, my partner? He's harmless," Erika replied with a shrug. There was a snort from behind her, and she grinned. "Unless you give him a reason not to be, of course. But he won't be telling anyone either. I can vouch for him."

"Thanks." They had parted ways with the gang, and per Academy training had not discussed the information given until they were in a secure location. For them, this meant back home in the clearing, the next morning.

"What do you think?" asked Erika cautiously as they took their morning drink at the stream.

Jack clearly didn't need to ask what she was talking about. "I don't know if it's a good idea. There are too many people around at a wedding. They might see me."

"I can't do this by myself. We have no idea what I'd be up against," Erika pointed out. She had been expecting a reaction like this.

He sighed. "I know that. And I'm sorry. It's just hard to break old habits."

"I understand; I won't pressure you. Maybe I can get Graynose and some of his coyotes to come with me instead. Do you think they'd mind, if we explain it to them the right way?"

"I'm pretty sure they wouldn't mind." He paused. "But I think this is something I have to do. I can't hide forever, I guess."

Erika stared at him, openmouthed. She had expected it to be a lot harder to persuade him to help her, if it was possible at all.

"What?" he said, sounding a little annoyed. "I'm not throwing an open house party or anything like that. I'm just saying I'll go with you to this wedding and do what's necessary to keep it from being crashed. That doesn't mean I'm going to go out of way to let anyone see me. In fact, I plan to avoid it if at all possible."

"I wasn't suggesting you go public with anything. That wouldn't be good for either of us! I was just fully prepared for you to tell me there was no way you were going near that wedding no matter what I said."

"I still might," he said with a ferocious scowl, but something about the way his slit-pupiled eyes were sparkling told her he wasn't serious.

"So miss all the fun," she replied with a shrug, as if it was of little consequence. "The coyotes and I will give you a blow-by-blow later, if you want." She stood and started walking back towards the clearing.

"Hey, I said I'd go, didn't I?" Jack scrambled up the embankment after her.

"You did. You just surprised me." Erika smiled at him. "You know, sometimes I think you're a pretty decent person under all that hair and brooding."

Jack stopped a few paces behind to stare at her in utter amazement. Erika grinned at him over her shoulder and continued on. She heard him mutter something that sounded like "_Decent?_" as if he were shocked that the term could be applied to him. She shook her head. Sometimes Jack's determined self-hate for his past mistakes grated on her nerves a little.

That night, they left a bit earlier to do the usual rounds so that they'd have time to get in place near where the wedding was to be held. The rest of the streets in the district were empty, almost to the point of being ominous.

"If I didn't already know something was going on, I'd be suspicious," Erika commented when they were almost finished. She saw Jack nod out of the corner of her eye.

When they arrived at the hotel itself, Jack hung back.

"I'll go check it out, see what's going on," Erika said. "You can stay here if you want."

"I'll cover you," Jack agreed. Erika slid into the landscaping around the hotel, grateful for whoever had planned the place to have provided her with the perfect way to spy without being seen.

The wedding itself was nearly complete, by Erika's estimate, as she peered in through the elegant windows looking in on the ballroom where the ceremony was taking place. The bride and groom were busy saying their vows while row after row of elegantly dressed guests looked on. The smiles in the room were so wide and unreserved that Erika knew nothing disturbing had happened yet.

Suddenly she heard the sound of a gun being cocked just to the right of her ear. Erika spun to face the noise, only to see the barrels of at least five guns, all trained at her. She froze, raising her hands in a gesture of surrender, and hoped that Jack wasn't facing something similar.

Another figure appeared between two of the gunmen. Erika recognized him at once: he was one of the men from the clearing, the one who could shapeshift into a tiger.

"He said you wouldn't be able to resist showing up here," he said with a sneer. "You heroes. You're all alike: put around one silly little rumor about trouble and you come out of the woodwork without fail, even when it's in your own best interests to stay away."

Though mentally running through a list of every curse word in every language she knew, Erika clenched her jaw and didn't respond. It wouldn't do for someone at the wedding to see the guns and start a mass panic. Fortunately, the gunmen hustled her quickly away from the window, so at least that possibility was forestalled for the moment.

When they were ensconced in a nearby alley, the tiger-man examined Erika from top to toe. "Hey, nice duds, kid," he complimented her. "You look pretty different from the last time we met. Thought a change of clothes would throw us off your scent, little healer?"

Erika couldn't help but look away, though it was more an attempt to keep from flinging herself at the man and getting shot than a gesture of shame.

He misinterpreted the look, of course. "Not so tough now when your giant bear and his little minions aren't around to protect you, huh?" he taunted. "We thought he'd hide like a coward rather than risk any human contact and leave you to do the dirty work. You're a sitting duck without him."

Again, Erika didn't respond, but she had begun to wonder what was keeping Jack. Surely he'd figured out that things hadn't quite gone as planned by now!

As if on cue, Jack's silhouette appeared on one wall of the alley. "Call this hiding?" his voice growled. "Come and get me, then!"

As one, the gunmen swung in the direction of this new, much more threatening enemy. The moment the guns were off of her, Erika sprang into action. A quick punch incapacitated one of the men, and in another second his gun was in her hands. She spun it expertly to use as a club for the next man, who was in the process of turning back to face her. He went down when the butt of the gun struck his head.

By this point, two of the remaining three had swung to cover her. Erika took a couple of steps backwards to allow room for her next maneuver, and gave her brightest smile, the one her father had dubbed the "bring-it-on look." By the time the pair had seen her look, interpreted it correctly, and fired, she was already moving. Tucking low, she dropped the gun in her hand and somersaulted once forward. As she came out of the roll, she kicked out while at the same time thrusting upward with her hands. Both feet struck the barrels of the handguns, turning them harmlessly to the sky. The bullets zoomed off into space.

Taking advantage of the pair's momentary confusion as to what had caused their guns to point to the stars, Erika flipped upright like a gymnast and dealt a solid punch to one man's chin. This blow felt much better than her takedown of the gang leader a few nights before; Erika could tell that it would put him right to sleep without breaking his jaw. He dropped. Spinning, Erika snapped out a kick that hit her second target in the gut. He crumpled over with a groan, and it was short work to knock him out as well. Erika turned to see how Jack was faring.

The final gunman had been well taught by someone, at least. He had his back to the wall while he trained his gun on the screaming ball of fur that was Jack and his adversary. Erika knew that given half a second's chance the man would shoot Jack without a qualm. Moving slowly so as not to attract his attention, she picked up the nearest of the four guns lying strewn around the alley pavement.

At the click of the gun's cocking mechanism, the man turned to face her. Erika had a moment's satisfaction of seeing his eyes flicker to the four still forms on the ground and then widen in panic. Then he saw the weapon in her hand, pointed straight at his heart.

"Drop it," she ordered, nodding her head at his own gun, which was still pointed at the fighting shapeshifters. He hesitated. "Do you think I don't know how to use one of these?" she demanded. "Hand-to-hand fighting isn't all they teach us before they let us loose on the city."

He dropped his gun with a clatter. Steadily, Erika paced forward, the gun in her hands straight and true. Privately, she was very glad that he hadn't chosen to test her resolve. Though Erika was a decent enough markswoman and could hardly miss at such a close range, she'd never actually been forced to shoot a human being in cold blood before. She'd been hoping to delay _that_ initiation into her justice career as long as possible.

Once she'd kicked his gun well out of grabbing range, Erika stepped back a pace. "Now, do you promise to behave? If you don't, I can't guarantee what I will or won't do when I'm rushed," she said coldly. The man nodded, and sank down to sit against the wall with his hands in plain view. Satisfied he wasn't going anywhere and positioning herself so that she could see if he made any sudden moves, Erika lowered the gun and turned most of her attention to Jack and the tiger-man.

She was appalled by the amount of blood on the ground. It was impossible to see precisely whose blood it was, or even really discern between the two combatants. The light in the alley was too poor and they were locked far too closely together. Her borrowed gun was of no use in such close quarters.

"Jack!" Erika yelled.

Suddenly, the two surged apart and formed into their proper shapes again. Jack had apparently heard her call and disengaged. Limping heavily, he backed towards Erika while keeping his opponent in view. Without hesitation, Erika leaned around his massive back and fired.

Her bullet caught the tiger in mid-leap. He tumbled over backwards with a cry, and then there was silence.

Erika came forward to stand beside Jack, who was wheezing audibly. "Can you hold on for a few minutes?" she asked.

"Sure." Jack's voice sounded hoarse, but steady. "I'll watch _him_," he indicated the still-conscious man against the wall, "but I don't think you'll be able to do much for our tiger friend. Good shooting."

Erika leaned around Jack and felt a little sick. While she had shot the man as a tiger, he was now in human form. His wide-open eyes were blank, and there was a neat little hole directly over his heart that was oozing blood. Gulping down nausea, she went forward and checked his neck for a pulse. There was none.

"He's dead," she announced, though she was willing to bet Jack already knew that. She looked more closely. "How come he's not hurt worse? He's covered in blood, but the only wound I see is the bullet hole."

"That's because shapeshifters automatically heal when we change from one form to another. We're not so different from you that way. I guess the bullet hole's still there because that's what killed him. Tex once told me that we automatically revert back to human form when we die." He paused. "Needless to say, I've never tried it."

Erika shuddered. "Good." She turned to the one remaining man, who shrank against the wall. "Now, let's get to business. Who are you working for?"

"I—" The man opened his mouth, then closed it. His face took on a strange expression that was a mixture between worry and puzzlement. "I can't remember. I can picture him, but I can't remember his name."

"Oh, really?" Jack hobbled over and leaned in so that his snarling muzzle was inches from the terrified man's nose. "I suggest you get over that convenient amnesia, my friend, or you won't like what happens to you."

The man gave a small gasp, and shoved himself as far as he could against the bricks behind him. "No, I swear! Don't hurt me! I know that I know, but I can't remember! I swear to God. I was told that if anyone asked his name, I'd forget it!"

Jack snarled, causing the man to squeal with fear. "Jack, stop it," Erika said, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Let's assume he's telling the truth. Listen," she added to the man. "Can you at least tell us what he looks like? Or where to find him?"

"I don't know where his base is. He hired us right off the streets," the man whined. "But I can tell you what he looks like. He's a big guy; a kid really, looks like he's just out of high school. He's got red hair, usually wears dark glasses."

Erika bit her lip to keep from crying out. Jack eyed her, but he didn't comment. Obviously he'd recognized that this was sensitive information, something they should talk about elsewhere. Instead, he asked her in a low, gentle voice, "What now?"

Swallowing her shock and horror to be dealt with later, Erika said, "Standard procedure, I guess. Tie them all up, and call the cops. They know a superhero bagging when they see one, fortunately, so we don't have to deal with any legal ramifications."

"I know all that," Jack reminded her, but he didn't sound annoyed. Erika smiled at him and went to the nearest payphone to make the call. Once that had been done and the men satisfactorily tied up, Erika turned to Jack.

"Can you walk?" she asked. "I can heal you, but I'd rather be somewhere a little more private."

"No problem," Jack declared, and though he ended up leaning on her heavily they managed to make it to the hotel's landscaped area, the closest place with moderate privacy. The wedding ceremony was over and the reception party had begun, judging by the throbbing dance music drifting from the nearby windows.

Jack settled down in a sheltered spot amongst the shrubs, which were about waist high for Erika. She knelt in front of him and examined his wounds on either side. "Wow, he really did a number on you," she commented. "These aren't as bad as last time, though."

"I was a little better prepared to fight a tiger," Jack said with a hiss of pain as Erika touched a gash on his neck. "He was also expecting me to have a lot more trouble with my bad shoulder. Whatever you did to it the other day really helped make it more bearable these past couple of days." He sighed and relaxed as Erika put two hands on either side of his head and sent her healing into him. Beginning with those closest to her hands, his cuts began to knit themselves together. After a few minutes, she sat back with a lurch.

"Did I miss anything?" she asked blearily.

"I think you got it all. Here, lean on me." Jack surged to his feet and caught her against his side as she started to sway. Once he was bearing most of the weight of her upper body, he settled back down to the ground. Erika shifted so that she had her back against his warm chest. She leaned back, and felt him curl around her so that he could put his head on her lap. This close, she could feel his heart beating beneath her, slow and steady. The rhythm was soothing, and despite her exhaustion, her fears about the identity of the person orchestrating the superhero attacks, and her residual worries about her mother, she felt a strange feeling of peace and safety stealing over her. She closed her eyes.

The music from the wedding had changed to a slow dance. The song was a familiar one, though she couldn't place the artist or when she'd first heard it.

…'_cause I'm your lady_

_And you are my man._

_Whenever you reach for me_

_I'll do all that I can…_

Erika sighed. The energy she'd used in healing had almost fully returned, yet she still didn't feel like moving. She couldn't ever remember feeling this comfortable.

_We're heading for something_

_Somewhere I've never been._

_Sometimes I am frightened, but I'm ready to learn_

_Of the power of love._

In her mind, Erika was in the ballroom as one of the guests. The bride and groom were dancing in the room's center, gazing into each others' eyes. All around, couples swayed together to the gentle rhythm of the singer's voice. Erika herself no longer wore the Spandex uniform Tex had given her; instead she had on a formal dress of an identical deep green shade, shot through with the same sparkling emerald threads. And the man she danced with…Erika couldn't picture his face. Every other detail in the room was so clear that it might as well have been reality, but her partner had no face. All she could make out was a pair of bright blue eyes.

Erika sat up sharply, breathing hard. The fantasy was over, and she was back outside the ballroom. The song had ended, and the guests were clapping.

"Are you all right?" Jack's deep voice asked from her lap.

"Fine." Erika put a hand to her head. "I must be more tired than I thought. I think I was starting to fall asleep."

"We should head back to the clearing, then."

"Yeah." Still, Erika was reluctant to move. Jack seemed to feel the same; he wasn't moving either. At last, Erika forced herself to gently move his head and stand up. They made their way back to the park without another word, but now Erika had something new to ponder along with everything else she'd learned that night_.  
_

* * *

_Author's Note: Ah ha! You thought it was never going to end, didn't you? In case you haven't been paying attention, this whole chapter has been the equivalent of the ballroom scene. Yes, that includes the fight scene, too. Hope you guys liked the action and the sweet fuzziness. I tried not to be too corny with the song lyrics, but that is my theme song for Jack and Erika. If you want to hear what it sounds like, go to iTunes and listen to the sample of Celine Dion's "The Power of Love." The entire song is just perfect. So I apologize if anyone found that annoying. I don't normally have theme songs for any of my characters/pairings, or use song lyrics in my stories, but this time I couldn't help it. So take issue with me if you have a sincere objection. Or if you just think it's corny. I'll hear you out. I just might not agree with you. Anyway, hope you're enjoying!_

_SamoaPhoenix9_


	18. What I Need

**Chapter 18**

_Disclaimer: I think my worst crimes to date are the jaywalking I do pretty much daily in my college town and a few accidentally run stop signs over my short career as a driver. Oh, and ripping off Disney, which is probably the only thing I might actually get prosecuted for. So, for the record, I do not own Beauty and the Beast._

Jack appreciated the silence on the return trip home. Erika seemed lost in her own thoughts, which was fine with him. What he really wanted to ponder was trying to figure out what to do about the identity of their attackers' boss, and how deeply he, Jack, should commit to getting involved in trying to track the guy down. The problem stretched way beyond the bounds of his park, after all. Instead, the image his mind kept showing him was the one he'd seen while the slow music played from the wedding hall and Erika was recovering from healing him:

_The first thing he noticed in the waking dream was _not_ that he was human. It felt so natural that it didn't even register until the vision itself was over. What he chiefly noticed was the beautiful woman he danced with. It looked like Erika, but it was an Erika he'd never seen before: she was clean, her hair was neatly piled on her head, and she wore a fancy dress that vaguely resembled the material and design of her superhero outfit, though it was hard to tell in the dim light of the dance floor. Trying to reconcile this image with the Erika Cavanaugh he actually knew, the one who either wore a filthy t-shirt and jeans or her skintight uniform and mask, was a difficult task. He'd never seen her in a dress, and it hadn't occurred to him to imagine her in one until this particular moment._

_But even that wasn't what his mind fully focused on. The thing that seemed most important was how comfortable she seemed in the fact that he was holding her close. She leaned against him and closed her eyes._

He'd come out of the waking dream to find a reality not to far from it: though he was back in his bestial form, Erika was in fact leaning against him, eyes closed in contentment. Looking back on that moment, Jack realized that he was having a harder and harder time finding alternative explanations for some of her actions around him. He had her trust, that much couldn't be denied. That in itself was an amazing thing, given how much she knew about him. Even more amazing, she clearly liked him, and perhaps even harbored deeper feelings.

And how did he feel about her? Jack had given up trying to deny that he was attracted to her. She was lovely, but not in the delicate sort of way that he'd always found interesting before. In fact, it was because she was so different from any of the other girls he'd ever been serious about that he knew what he felt for her was as just as different.

"Who sings that song?" Erika asked suddenly, bringing him back to the earth.

"Huh?" mumbled Jack, trying to clear his head for conversation. They were now among the trees of the park, at which they'd arrived without him noticing.

"That song. The one at the wedding. It sounded familiar, but I can't remember who sings it."

"Céline Dion, I think," Jack answered.

"That sounds right."

"Don't ask me how I remembered," Jack said, striving for a light tone. "It's been years since I last heard that song."

"Me, either. I'm not much of a Céline Dion fan, but I remember liking that song when I heard it."

"You're more of a country fan."

Jack's sharp eyes detected a slight flush on Erika's neck and face. Aloud, she said, "I understand if you think that's weird. Not many people that I know of outside my group of friends at school really like country music at all. Including my mother."

"I don't think it's weird," Jack said hastily.

"You do. You're just trying to be nice," accused Erika, folding her arms across her chest.

"I don't!" Jack insisted. He realized belatedly that she was teasing him and almost groaned aloud at falling for her bait.

Erika nudged him. "Do too."

"Do not."

"Do."

"Do not."

"Do."

"All right, I give up. Maybe I might have, once. But I have to admit I never really thought about it one way or the other."

Erika mock-glared. "You know, in a way that's almost worse."

"You're probably right," Jack agreed with a short laugh. "But now, we have to talk about something more serious. You know this guy who's behind all our problems, don't you?"

Her face fell immediately into a scowl, but before she could answer Graynose and several of his coyotes oozed out from behind the trees.

_What happened?_Graynose asked after surveying the two of them.

Erika looked at Jack. "What did he say?"

"He wants to know what happened. Give me a second to explain," Jack replied. To Graynose, he said, "We got jumped. It was all a setup; nothing was going on at the wedding at all. But we came out on top, and we think we might know who's behind everything."

_Is that all?_

"What else would there be?" asked Jack curiously.

_Well…_ Graynose's eyes flicked from Jack to Erika, and back. _You mean you haven't noticed? _He paused, and at Jack's blank look he gave the coyote equivalent of a shrug and said, _Never mind. What have you found out?_

"Yes, what have we found out?" Jack asked, turning to Erika and choosing to ignore the coyote's strange comments.

Erika's expression grew, if possible, even darker. "It's Jerry. The guy they described could only be a classmate of mine. He…" She flushed, though from embarrassment or rage Jack couldn't tell. "…he's been wanting to date me for awhile. I always turned him down, until recently."

"You never told me about this!" Jack said, hearing his voice turn slightly accusing without his permission. He felt an unwanted twinge of jealousy at this evidence of another man showing interest in Erika.

Erika herself rolled her eyes at him. "I didn't tell you because I didn't think it mattered. The only date we ever had was an unqualified disaster. I walked out on it when I found out my mother was in trouble."

Jack looked away. Now he felt somewhat guilty. He knew Erika pretty well by now. She would let a guy know in no uncertain terms if she wasn't interested—and she had, if he remembered correctly. He recalled the day he'd seen her running on the path, and the guy she'd been with, the one who'd used his laser vision to try to impress her. So that must have been him. This boy must be pretty persistent—or pretty stupid—to have kept after her when she continuously turned him down.

"Anyway," Erika continued, unaware of Jack's musings, "I've never thought much of him personally, but I didn't believe he was capable of murdering his own kind." She paused, a sad look in her eyes. "I would have liked to think I'm a better judge of character than that. I guess I was wrong."

"Don't blame yourself. I suspect this is the kind of thing you can't see coming until it hits you in the face."

"I guess we'll never know. But thank you anyway." Erika smiled at him, making his heart jump in a way he definitely wanted to ignore.

_So we know who this person is, _Graynose put in, thankfully interrupting. _What are we going to do about it?_

"I don't know," Erika admitted after Jack had translated for her. "I know where his house is, but I seriously doubt he'd be idiotic enough to conduct a base of operations for any kind of nefarious plot from there."

"It can't hurt to take a look, though," said Jack, who had his own doubts about the man's relative intelligence if he couldn't take even a subtle "no" from Erika Cavanaugh.

Erika started to say something, but was cut off by a short bark from among the trees. Out trotted another coyote, carrying something in its jaws. As she drew closer, Jack saw that it was Foxtail, Graynose's mate, and the thing she clutched was a newspaper. When she went straight to Erika and offered the paper, Jack's stomach clenched. This could only be bad news, and he had a suspicion about whom it concerned.

Erika took the paper and opened it out. She squinted to read the headline in the dim moonlight filtering down from between the trees. She mouthed a few words, and then visibly recoiled as their meaning sank in.

Despite the fact that he'd been vaguely expecting a reaction along these lines, Jack's first instinct was genuine concern. "What is it? What's wrong?"

Mutely, her face white, Erika held out the paper for him to read. Unlike her, Jack's cat eyes had little trouble discerning the words. The headline screamed SUPERHEROINE TYPHOON UNCONCIOUS IN LOCAL HOSPITAL. Accompanying it was a grainy photo of Erika's mother, mask still in place but in a hospital bed.

Jack swore before he could stop himself. "Don't the hospitals still have that secrecy policy in place?"

"As far as I know. Someone must have leaked," Erika said. A less finely tuned ear than Jack's would have certainly missed the higher note of panic in her voice. In fact, had he not spent a good deal of time around her for the past few days Jack doubted that even his ears could have detected it. But there it was.

"It happens," was what he said aloud, but internally his mind was calculating. He knew what the little voices in his head that represented their trainers at the Academy, Tex, and even his own basic instincts were telling him: stay objective. One person's life is small compared to the many others that will suffer or die if you make a choice based on personal feelings alone. But he also knew that the rest of him, the part he thought he'd lost forever five years previously, was saying just the opposite.

Erika was still talking. "This means that Jerry, or whoever might want to hurt her, will know right where to find her. She won't be awake to stop them."

"You should go check on her. If you want," Jack blurted before he could stop himself.

"What?" Erika seemed brought up short by this pronouncement.

"I mean it. Go check on her, if you think she's in danger. Wake her up. Stay with her if you need to. Tell me where this guy of yours lives. I'll go stake out his house, see if there's any reason to suspect he's operating out of there."

"Really? You'd do all that?" Erika gave a small smile. "I can't tell you how much it would mean to me."

"Of course I'll do it. We're in this together, right? We can't let this Jerry character get away with whatever it is he's planning."

Now Erika gave a genuine grin. "You sound like a real hero. Thank you so much, Jack." Before he knew what was happening, she'd knelt in front of him and flung her arms around his neck. He felt her breath in his rough fur and trembled a little at the heat of it. While he was still stunned, she pulled back. After giving him Jerry's address, she said, "I'll be back as soon as I can to see how things are going, hopefully with my mother in tow. It'll take some explaining to get her to warm up to you, but I think it can be done. Thank you again!"

She disappeared into the dark woods, back in the direction they'd come.

"Be careful!" Jack managed to call after her.

_How will she know which hospital to go to?_ Graynose asked after a moment.

_Silly, _his mate scolded. _She still has the human newspaper I brought to her. She can read there to find where her dam is in a place where the light is better for human eyes._

_Of course. I forgot. A useful thing, writing. Information you do not have to always carry in your head can be found in marks on paper, _commented Graynose with a sigh. They were silent again, looking off after Erika. At length, though it seemed abrupt to Jack, Graynose turned to face him. _You are in love with the girl, yes?_

"I—what?" Though he already knew the answer, the question startled him. "I-I think so," he finally managed. "Though I hardly understand how it's possible. We haven't even known each other that long. And," he added miserably, "I have no idea of she feels the same way."

_That I cannot tell you._

"Then how do you know with such certainty that I…" Jack swallowed. "That I love her?"

_I know you far better than I know her. And there is the matter of your scent._

"My scent?" Jack repeated dumbly.

Graynose cocked his head solemnly. _In the time I have known you, with each passing season your scent has grown less and less human until it was a mere shadow within everything else that combines to make your scent unique. Then this girl came. At first, I thought perhaps it was merely her human scent rubbing off on you. But tonight, when you returned from your mission, I was certain that it was your scent that had changed. You smell far more human now than I can ever remember._

"You mean…I'm changing back? I don't feel any different. Do I look different?" asked Jack eagerly. Maybe it was true, what Tex had once told him, that he had to fall in love with a human woman to regain his original shape. For the first time in years he wished for a mirror.

_You look the same. But your scent has changed, just a little. That is what I meant when I asked if anything else had happened while you were out on your mission._

"There was a song at the wedding…she was leaning against me and I had the strangest sort of daydream…" Jack's thoughts scattered. "I wish I had more time to think about this, but I promised Erika I'd stake out this guy's house and see if he really is up to something. Any of you guys coming?"

Foxtail and Graynose consulted with the few of their pack that were there. Then Foxtail turned to Jack. _A few of us will go with you. The rest have their own business in the city to take care of._

Jack had been expecting something like this. The coyotes were pack creatures essentially, but they had always been wary of getting too deeply involved in human, or even superhuman in this case, affairs. "All right," he agreed. "Then let's get going.

* * *

_Author's Note: I really am sorry for taking this long to update. It's just been one distraction after another: other projects, other stories, other everything. Plus my stupid guilt complex that tends to prick at me during this time of the year every time I sit down to work on anything that's not school-related. That's hardly a valid excuse for making you all wait, but it's the best I can offer. Just trust me when I say that I'm doing my best and I hate having to prioritize, but hey, that's life in college. _

_Thanks to all of you for your patience._

_SamoaPhoenix9_


	19. Just Beyond My Reach

**Chapter 19**

_Disclaimer: Life's not fair, is it? If it were fair I'd probably own at least a share in Beauty and the Beast. But only a share, since it wouldn't be fair to keep it all to myself, now would it? Unfortunately for us all, life's not fair and I don't own even a part of Beauty and the Beast._

Erika barely stopped to glance at the newspaper to determine her destination when she got out of the park. Already she feared she might be too late. She did feel a little guilty about running out on Jack and their larger mission, but she consoled herself with the thought that waking her mother up would do them a great deal more good than harm.

One thing puzzled her, though. Since the beginning of their acquaintance Jack had been disinterested in anything that didn't have to do with the park and guarding his territory. And then he'd done two things that surprised her: he'd agreed to come patrolling with her a few days earlier, and just now he'd gone to stake out Jerry's house without any prompting from her. What had caused his change of heart and gotten him…well, thinking like a human, and a hero, again?

"We're in this together," he'd said. And Erika now realized that it was true, more than she'd ever admitted before. They'd formed a solid partnership over the past few days. An odd thing, when a very little before that they'd wanted nothing to do with each other. She already knew she'd miss him when they went back to their normal lives.

Maybe, when all this was over, she could persuade him to come out of the park more often.

Erika looked around, and realized that she'd headed for the nearest Metro stop without thinking about it. Of course, as a superhero in uniform she technically couldn't ride, and she didn't have a change of civilian clothes with her, but there were ways around that. She didn't have hours to spare walking all the way to Bethesda Naval Hospital.

Fifteen minutes later, she was flattened down on the roof of a moving train, praying the wind wouldn't tear her mask from her face. A year of practice sneaking in and out of their tunnel in another subway stop had helped her easily avoid all the cameras as well as the few people actually riding the rails at this time of night. Once a train arrived, she simply slid off the platform itself and a little way into the tunnel, away from prying eyes, and slipped atop one of the train cars as it picked up speed beside her. It was a miracle she hadn't been spotted, but generous people tended to turn a blind eye to superhero activities. She just had to keep reminding herself that the speed of travel was worth the extra effort.

Her arm and neck muscles were aching by the time she actually reached the correct stop. She'd had to change trains once, which meant more maneuvering to avoid being seen, and then the actual stop was a lot farther on the second line than she had anticipated. Once out of the Metro stop altogether she took a few moments to stretch out and make sure her full range of motion had returned before continuing on up the dark street.

Bethesda Naval Hospital should technically have been out of range for a D.C. superhero, it being officially in Maryland, but it was included in Academy training as an area a D.C. hero had to know. Thus Erika knew precisely where she was going. How to get there was another issue. Bethesda was a far more affluent neighborhood than she was used to, and as a consequence it was better lit and much more crowded than her patrol area even so late at night. It took her less than thirty seconds to decide to head for the rooftops, using a few tricks about climbing quietly learned from Jack to gain them. Once there, it was a simple matter to make her way towards the towering edifice that was the hospital.

Entering the hospital through the brightly lit main entrance took a brief swallowing of nerves. Erika knew she was attracting too much attention in her green costume and mask, but that couldn't be helped. She made her way to the receptionist's desk, trying to ignore the stares and the occasional click of a cameraphone. Her image would be on the internet in a matter of minutes, if she was any judge. She swallowed hard again at how many Academy guidelines she was flouting and stood before the receptionist with an impassive face.

"Can I help you?" the receptionist asked, though her tone said she already had an idea what the visit was about.

"I need to speak to the person in charge of publicity here," said Erika, trying to keep her voice from shaking.

"Of course. Just a minute." She punched a few buttons on her phone and spoke into it in a low voice. Replacing the speaker, she said, "Mr. Philander will be right out."

Within seconds a slightly disheveled man in a tie and sport coat practically sprinted into the lobby. His eyebrows went up when he saw Erika, and he approached her more slowly.

"Are you the liaison from the Board?" he asked cautiously.

Erika knew what he was referring to: the Board of Directors that ran the Academy and also functioned as governing council for the local superhero community at large. "No," she said aloud, using the firm, no-nonsense voice she used when in uniform, "I'm Typhoon's…" Trainee? Not in this outfit, she wasn't. "Partner," she affirmed.

The man didn't seem to notice her hesitation. "Ah. I'm James Philander, head of the press corps here. I think I know what you're here about." At her nod, he went on, "Then, do you have a few minutes to speak privately?"

"Certainly." Erika followed him down the hall and into a cramped office that reminded her of the school psychologist's at the Academy.

He sat behind the desk, and motioned her into a seat opposite. "Let me extend my deepest apologies," he said. He lifted a corner of the newspaper sitting on his desk, which Erika saw was a copy of the one she had already seen. "I don't know how this happened, really I don't."

"Could there have been a leak somehow?" asked Erika, crossing her arms.

"There must have been, but I don't see how…I've already been assured by the attending staff that none of them broke secrecy. I had a word with my own staff, and all of them denied passing on any information to anyone, even by accident. There weren't that many people who knew Typhoon was here in the first place. Naturally, everyone who was let near her was chosen for their discretion." He paused, and ran a hand through his hair. "Of course we've had her put under constant surveillance since the article appeared."

"Thank you. It's good to know some procedures are still being followed," said Erika, unable to keep a bite of sarcasm from her voice.

He flinched as though she'd started around the desk with a fist raised. "We're truly sorry. Now that you're here, we can have her transferred someplace more secure, perhaps at Walter Reed…"

"That won't be necessary," Erika assured him. He seemed so intimidated by her mere presence, she almost felt sorry for him despite her annoyance. "If you'd be good enough to take me to see her, we can both get out of your hair."

He gave her an odd look at that, but only said, "Absolutely. If you'll follow me?"

They left the office and made their way down a carpeted hall to a set of elevators. Philander punched the 'up' button, and they waited a minute or two for the elevator to arrive. The awkward silence stretched all the way up to the 21st floor and through the doors marked "Secure Wing."

Erika could immediately tell which room housed her mother. Two guards, a man and a woman, were stationed outside. Both stood vigilant, hands on their weapons, until they saw who was coming towards them. That was a good sign of Mai's safety. Erika relaxed a little.

Philander fished in a pocket and pulled out an ID badge, which he showed to the female guard. She glanced at it and nodded, but held out a hand to stop Erika from entering the room.

"It's all right, Gloria. She's the patient's partner," Philander said, but still Gloria barred the way.

"With all due respect, her wearing a mask and a skintight outfit aren't good enough," she protested. "What if she's not who she says she is?" Erika saw the woman's partner reach under his jacket, likely for a weapon. Oh, these people were good. Unfortunately, she didn't have time for their scruples.

"Listen, I know I can't prove that I'm Typhoon's partner, but I can prove one thing: I'm her daughter." Philander choked, and Gloria and her partner exchanged glances. Erika hurried on, "I'm prepared to do a DNA test right now, if you insist on me proving my identity. But I really hope we don't need to go that far."

"That's enough for me," Philander said hastily. He looked at the two guards. "That enough for you guys?"

Again the guards glanced at each other. "Good enough," the man said after a moment. "But you get exactly one minute, and one of us has to come in the room with you."

"But—" Erika saw the looks on the guards' faces and silenced her protest. "All right. I don't have time to argue. The sooner we're out of here, the safer we'll all be. Let's go."

"Fine." The guards stepped aside to admit her. It was Gloria who followed her into the room, shutting the door behind her.

Erika was momentarily struck motionless at the sight of her mother. Mai still wore her mask, luckily, but the shapeless hospital gown dwarfed her compact frame. Her skin was ashen, and the heart monitor she was hooked to blipped softly in the background. Erika had never seen her mother, neither as Mai Cavanaugh nor as Typhoon, lie so still.

"Oh, _Haha_," she murmured, blinking away unexpected tears. Once she had composed herself, she turned to Gloria. "I'm going to wake her up now. Please don't try to stop me."

For the first time, Gloria showed some emotion besides suspicion. "It's that easy? You can wake her up just like that?"

"I'm a healer." Erika didn't waste any more energy trying to explain further. She stepped up to Mai's bed and gently unhooked her from everything except the heart monitor, knowing that messing with that in any way would bring nurses running. There were likely going to be enough questions to answer later in that department, which Erika preferred to put off as long as possible. She put two hands on her mother's temples and allowed her healing to flow.

The internal damage wasn't as bad as she'd been expecting, but it was still pretty bad. Erika knew she was spending more energy than was probably wise, but this was her mother, one of the people most dear to her on the planet. She wanted her completely well again.

It was only when the healing was complete and Erika was on her knees beside the bed, gasping with exertion, did she take notice of what was going on in the rest of the room. When she managed to turn her head around, standing in the doorway was Jerry. Gloria was crumpled on the floor in a heap, and outside she could see two more forms that were likely James Philander and Gloria's partner.

"You—" she gasped, but couldn't find any more energy to force all the words she wanted out of her mouth.

"Hello, Erika," he said, a grin flashing from under those dark glasses. "It's been too long since we last saw each other for my taste."

"Not long enough," Erika snarled, trying vainly to use the bedrails to get to her feet.

"You don't look so good. Let me help you," Jerry said amiably. In two large strides he'd crossed the room, and for the second time in their lives held her upright against her will. She caught herself thinking that she'd never wished for Jack's presence so much, in more ways than one.

"Let me go, you—you traitor," she snapped. She was slowly regaining her strength, and Jerry was already having to strain to hold onto her.

Jerry seemed unaffected by her name-calling, however. "We figured once we saw that article that you'd come here eventually. Surprised you didn't come sooner, really."

"You didn't print the article?" Erika asked, startled.

"No. But greedy paparazzi looking to make a buck are always helpful. One of them snuck in here a few days ago, I think."

A hand gripped Jerry's wrist, causing them both to look down. Typhoon was awake, and though she was still lying down, her eyes were dark and furious. "Unhand my daughter," she said, in that low, dangerous voice that Erika knew meant trouble. She used Jerry's momentary distraction to wriggle one arm free of his grasp.

"That's enough," Jerry said, seeming to lose patience at last. From a pocket he drew a handgun and pressed it to the back of Erika's head. "You're both going to stop giving me trouble. Now."

Erika and Typhoon froze. They knew what a bullet to the brain meant.

"That's better. Get up," Jerry ordered Typhoon. She did so, and through her terror Erika was relieved to see that her healing had been successful. Her mother should be at full strength.

"Come over here," Jerry ordered. Typhoon obeyed, pulling off the sensors that connected her to the heart monitor. The machine began to whine, the flatline on the screen an alarming sight even though it no longer meant anything critical.

"The nurses," Erika warned.

"Already took care of them," Jerry replied smugly. To Typhoon, he said, "In my left pocket you'll find two pieces of cloth. Pull them out."

Typhoon obeyed, her mouth twisting into a grimace. Erika, too, could see where this was leading. Chloroform. One of the oldest tricks in the book, and one that still worked on people with powers.

Jerry was still issuing orders. "Now, hold one to your mouth and one to Erika's. Breathe deep, both of you." Erika tried to turn away so that she wouldn't get a full dose, but Jerry jerked her arm so that she gasped in pain and in so doing breathed into the cloth. The last thing she saw before her own world went dark were the whites of her mother's eyes as they rolled up inside her head.

* * *

_Author's Note: Man, you people are cruel, making me wait so long for reviews of the last chapter. Turnabout is fair play, I guess. _

_Things are rapidly turning towards the conclusion, which I can pretty much guarantee will be a surprise. One of the downsides to even loosely following the Disney plotline means certain things about this story are predictable, regrettably. But you guys know I'm usually good for an unconventional end, right? _

_Stay tuned,_

_SamoaPhoenix9_


	20. The Rising Odds

**Chapter 20**

_Disclaimer: You know, maybe it's for the best that I don't own Beauty and the Beast. Then I'd have people pestering me all the time for the rights to it, and I'd never have time to write._

Though under the circumstances it was the last thing he felt like doing, Jack headed to the address Erika had given him. He'd promised her he would, after all. And, in love or not, he was still curious about this Jerry guy and if he'd been stupid enough to run a base for some sort of diabolical plot out of his own home.

No, appeared to be the immediate answer. When they arrived, the house was dark and shut up. Jack and the three coyotes who had accompanied him sniffed all around. The coyotes got a good sense of who came and went for the most part, while Jack looked for possible entrances or signs of criminal activity. He found nothing, though the coyotes turned up a few interesting things.

_Very few people frequently come and go from this place, _announced Snaggletooth, the male left in charge in Graynose's absence. _They all seem to be the same five or six. An adult male and adult female, both perhaps middle aged…_

"His parents, maybe," Jack commented to himself.

Snaggletooth was still talking._ … a female who is nearly fully mature…_

"Sister, or possibly a girlfriend."

_…and two males about the same age as the female. Both of them have that scent you pointed out to us, the one that says the human has…abilities. Powers._

"Two males with powers?" Jack repeated. Then he remembered the other boy he'd seen speak to Erika and Jerry on the running path. The pale one with dark hair. Maybe that was him.

_Yes, two males. One of them is the one from the clearing, the one who wasn't a shapeshifter._

"The shapeshifter's dead. I guess this guy Jerry is the other half of that pair. But Erika didn't recognize the tiger at all when he was in his human form. So who is this other guy, and is he in on this or an innocent victim?"

_What?_ All three coyotes had tilter their heads at him in puzzlement.

Jack explained about the dark-haired runner. "Erika seemed to know them both when I saw them on the path. But she didn't know the tiger-man at all. So the logical conclusion is there's someone else mixed up in this somehow. I just wish I could figure out what it's all is leading up to. We have somebody, or a group of somebodies, systematically killing superheroes and making the deaths look like accidents. They've now tried for Erika's mom once and Erika twice. There has to be some sort of connection, but I can't figure out what it is. Maybe Erika, or her mother, will have some kind of idea when they get back."

_Was your life as a human…superhero, you call it? like this all the time? _asked Silverstreak, the only female of the three.

"No," Jack admitted ruefully. "Things were never simple, but they never got this complicated, either. Mostly because it's a rare thing for superheroes to turn exclusively against their own kind. Usually the ones that go bad are out for world dominion, or something like that. Then it would be our job as the designated good guys to fix things."

_Can we 'fix things,' here?_

Jack let out a huff of exasperated breath. "It's hard to fix things when you don't understand the whole problem. Why are we standing around here yapping? Let's set up a perimeter and see if anything interesting happens."

They each chose a segment of cover with a good view of every side of the house. Jack had a harder time than the coyotes, of course, but he managed to find a good concealing stand of bushes in a neighbor's yard across the street. Once he was sure he couldn't be seen, he settled down to wait.

It was barely half an hour later when he heard something come wheezing out of the bushes behind him. He spun around. Foxtail stood there. Her head hung low, her legs were buckling.

A dark sense of foreboding stole over Jack. For a moment he couldn't speak, but at last he forced himself to ask, "What's wrong?"

Foxtail just looked at him, her eyes huge, her pink tongue wagging back and forth as she panted.

And Jack knew. "Something's happened to Erika."

Foxtail nodded, gulped in a deep breath, and said, _We followed…her…to the hospital, but we…were too late…saw her…taken…_

"Where? Do you know where?" Jack demanded.

_Came…to tell you…Graynose followed the girl…promised to mark a trail…_

"Then let's go! There isn't any time to waste," exclaimed Jack, more loudly than he meant to. A light snapped on in the nearest house. He cursed under his breath, gently scooped up Foxtail in his mouth and made his way out of the neighborhood. He knew without looking that the other three coyotes were following. Their ears were too good for them to have not missed his last few words, even if they hadn't heard the entire exchange. Jack was eager to pick up the trail, however, and as soon as he put down Foxtail near the park, he left the others far behind.

* * *

Tex was planning on another late night. There wasn't much time left between now and when last year's Academy graduates would be given their official uniforms, hero names, and solo districts. Traditionally it was the mentors' jobs to commission their trainees' uniforms, and some mentors had been more prompt than others about getting their orders in on time. This was always a busy time of the year, but Tex enjoyed the challenge of getting each uniform perfect.

If he remembered correctly, the girl whom Jack had brought in several nights a go should have been in this batch. There'd been no word from her mentor about it, and Tex didn't expect it. It hadn't taken much asking around with his contacts at the Academy to discover that both the heroine Typhoon and her trainee were missing. At least Tex knew the trainee was safe, and he'd read in the local paper that Typhoon had been located in a hospital. Something odd was going on, and Jack was mixed up in it somehow. Tex couldn't help feeling that it would be good for the kid. The healer-girl might even somehow be able to draw his former trainee back to humanity, though the chances were long.

Someone knocked on the front door. Tex growled softly to himself and bit off a thread. He was a big believer in conserving energy, so he shut off both his temperamental old sewing machine and the cozy light he'd been using to work by before heading downstairs.

Just as he reached the tiny foyer, his hackles pricked for some reason. He stopped, flaring his nostrils and sniffing deeply. Even in human form his sense of smell was keener than most, and he trusted it. Something wasn't right.

Glancing around out of habit, Tex made the change to his other form. The moment he started to breathe with a more powerful nose he knew what had caused his anxiety: someone was in the house.

He spun around with a snarl to find a long, thin-muzzled rifle already trained at him.

"You're a fool, boy," he growled. "D'you think that little pea-shooter'll do enough damage to stop me from rippin' your throat out?"

"You're probably right," agreed the young man facing him. He lowered the rifle and cracked it. For just a second Tex thought he might have actually given up. Then the wolf-man realized his mistake and leaped, but it was far too late. Lightning-fast, his opponent brought the cracked gun to his lips and blew. Out shot, not a bullet, but a dart, which struck Tex on the shoulder. It stung, but not as much as the knowledge that he'd been outsmarted for the first time in many years.

"This round is yours, boy," he acknowledged once he'd found his footing again. "But remember that I won't sleep forever, unless you're cowardly enough to kill me while I'm under whatever you put in that thing."

"I'd hardly call that cowardly. I'd call that a smart way of dealing with an unwarranted nuisance," the young man replied. "But killing you that way wouldn't serve any purpose—this time. So for now, pleasant dreams, old wolf. We'll meet again soon."

Tex tried to puzzle out these statements, but his thoughts were already scattering and his knees were growing weak. He sank to the floor, and against his will felt his breathing grow heavy and regular. He managed to send the young man one last vicious glance, and then surrendered to tranquilizer creeping through his veins.

* * *

_Author's Note: So the pieces are in place! I know this chapter is really short compared to my normal ones, but I needed to set everything up before I launch into the last couple of chapters. Ah, I love Thanksgiving break! Finally I have time to write! (For those of you who happen to not have grown up in the United States, the basic idea behind Thanksgiving is that we get a few days off of work to celebrate what's going right in our lives.) So stay tuned, the real fun's beginning and it's gonna be a bumpy ride!_

_SamoaPhoenix9_


	21. I Need A Hero!

**Chapter 21**

_Disclaimer: They're mine! All mine! Except not quite yet. Maybe next time the characters will belong to me instead of to Disney._

Erika could not suppress a slight moan as she awoke. Her head was throbbing, her neck and back muscles ached, and as she shifted she realized that her hands and feet were tied up. She dragged her eyes open. She was in a large, dimly lit room that had a faint industrial look about it. Cement floor, concrete walls, tiny windows with heavily frosted glass, steel girders in the ceiling. For all she knew, she might be in a basement, or the top floor of a twenty-story building. She might not even be in D.C. anymore.

Her head throbbed again, and she winced. Closing her eyes, she brought up her powers, just a drop. The head, neck, and backaches vanished instantly, and she was able to really take in her position. She was tied to a chair with her hands behind her, and in such a way that she could not get at the binding. Her muscular aches had been from the awkward position in which her limp body had been resting. Mai was still unconscious, tied to another chair with her back to her daughter. Erika could only see a head of dark hair if she twisted hard and squinted.

"_Haha_? Wake up!" she whispered, but Mai did not stir.

Something else did stir, off in a corner that Erika hadn't noticed before. She recoiled instinctively, but when nothing came out of the shadows, she ventured, "Hello? Is anyone there?"

"Erika? That you?" came a voice. It had a familiar twang, but it was far more gravely than she remembered.

"Tex?"

"The same. You all right, kid? Where's Jack?"

"I'm OK, I think. I'm tied up. My mother is, too. I don't know where Jack is. He wasn't with me when we got caught. What about you? Are you all right? You sound…different."

A laugh that sounded like a dog's snort sounded from the corner. "I'm well enough, considering. I'm still in my wolf body. They got me in a cage so small that if I change back I'll likely be crushed."

Erika growled a few curses under her breath. "Looks like he planned ahead."

"We may be about to find out the next phase of the plan. I can hear somebody coming. Can you get out of your ties?"

"No."

Tex let loose with stream of words more colorful than Erika had ever dared use. She might have giggled had the situation not been so grave. After a moment, he said, "Sit tight, kid. Remember to stay strong. We'll think of something that'll get us out of this." Then he fell silent as the door opened.

Erika winced as brilliant light from the illuminated hallway fell onto her. Out of the brightness stepped a tall figure. Jerry, for once not wearing his dark glasses.

Erika opened her mouth to shout, but something halted her. There was something…furtive about the way he kept looking over his shoulder. So instead she glared at him until he was close, then hissed, "Traitor."

He actually flinched at her words. "I'm sorry, Erika. I know it doesn't mean much, but I'm sorry."

"What…what are you doing?" Erika stared at him over her shoulder as he bent and began untying Mai.

"Shhh! I can't explain everything. But I'm getting you out of here. It's the least I can do."

"Why?" Erika demanded, keeping her voice low and poisonous. "Have you suddenly decided you like me after all?"

"No! I mean, I do like you, but not in that way. You're a decent person, Erika. I don't want to see you hurt in all this." He finished untying Mai and started working at the rope on Erika's hands.

"In all what? What's going on? And if you're not the one that's…" Erika's brain caught up with her. Suddenly, there it was. "Oh, no. Not him."

"Someone else's coming. Fast," announced Tex from his corner. Jerry leapt away from Erika as the door banged open and another figure stood silhouetted against the light.

"Jack!" Erika didn't think she'd ever been so happy to see someone.

"Erika. You're safe." He came forward and actually ran a gentle paw through her hair. Their eyes met, and something warm passed between them. He reached down and tore through the ropes binding her wrists with his claws, so carefully that he didn't cut her at all. As soon as they were free, she flung her arms around him and hugged him tight.

"How did you know to…how did you find us?" she asked.

"The coyotes. Graynose is waiting outside," he said. Then he saw Jerry, who looked white in the face and more than a little nervous. She felt Jack stiffen. His hackles rose, and his lips curved back in a terrible snarl.

"Wait!" Erika put a hand on Jack's shoulder. She couldn't stand because her legs were still tied to the chair.

"Why? Look at what he's done to you!" he snapped.

"Jack, sonny, you might want to listen to the lady," said Tex's voice.

"Tex? You're here too?" Jack shook his head in confusion. "Will somebody please explain what's going on here?"

"I think that's my cue," said another voice from the door. The room went utterly quiet as the door banged ominously shut behind the newcomer. Erika saw as she turned that Jerry looked utterly horrified, an odd expression on his normally calm face.

Standing in the doorway was Lyle. He looked just as he normally did: a short, pale guy barely out of teenagehood dressed in black jeans and a white t-shirt. But the look of smug self-satisfaction was a new addition.

"Somehow I feel like I should have seen this coming," Erika remarked, trying desperately to keep her voice steady, "And yet I'm still surprised that you're the one behind all this, Lyle. I wouldn't have thought--"

"—me capable?" finished Lyle. "I take credit for that. I worked hard to cultivate the image of a sidekick so that all trails would lead away from me."

"How long have you been planning this?" asked Erika, trying to sort through her memories to see if there had been any clues over the years. None immediately came to mind.

"I don't know when the idea first occurred to me," replied Lyle thoughtfully. He inspected his nails. "Looking back, it seems as if I've always been working on this plan. At least, ever since I entered the Academy from New York."

"What made you think you were going to get away with killing all the superheroes in town one by one and nobody would notice?" Jack demanded. "Eventually the Academy would have done something."

Lyle raised an eyebrow. "I hardly planned on killing all the superheroes. Just the ones who might have stopped me."

Erika opened her mouth to ask another question, but Lyle held up his hand. "Perhaps a demonstration will help clarify things for you. Jerry, come over here."

Jerry walked around Jack to stand beside Lyle. His expression was calm again. "He was working for you all along," Erika accused.

"Unwillingly, but yes. Except for the past few minutes. I intended to have this conversation while all of you were tied up, but he seems to have had other ideas. The way things stand at the moment, however, it doesn't make much difference." He addressed himself to Jerry. "Burn a two-inch circle on the far wall."

Jerry nodded. His dark eyes glowed a brilliant red, and, laserlike, a perfect circle was drawn on the wall. If Erika had had the time or inclination to measure, she would have been willing to bet it was exactly two inches in diameter.

"So that's your power. You control people and make them do things against their will," Jack said. There was an undercurrent of a snarl in his voice.

Lyle smiled, catlike. "All it takes is a word of suggestion from me and I have people eating out of my hand, superheroes and civilians alike. Except," his expression turned sour, "for some perverse reason my power has no effect on people with so-called 'throwback' powers. Shapeshifting, healing, mind-reading, things like that."

"Barry was a shapeshifter," Erika muttered, piecing things together. "Celina must have been a mind-reader."

"It explains why Tex is here," Jack replied.

Something occurred to Erika. "I have throwback powers. Why'd you try so long to get me and Jerry together? Since I assume you orchestrated that whole thing."

"I did." For the first time, Lyle's smug expression wavered. "You remember how it was at the Academy, Erika. Those of us with the 'lame' powers were constantly harassed. But you were always decent, at least to me. I didn't want to have to get rid of you. So I tried to get you and Jerry together in the hopes that you might be brought willingly to my way of thinking through your feelings for him. But you were stubborn for too long and now you've forced my hand. For that, I apologize."

"Apologize?" Erika and Jack spluttered together, and in the background Erika heard something that might have been a snort from Tex.

"Well, what else did you want me to do? Laugh maniacally and say something to the effect that the world will soon be mine?" Now Lyle looked a bit perturbed. "Not that it won't be, in a fairly short amount of time, but the crazy laughter went out a long time ago. I've done my homework."

"So the plan is to take over the world." Jack stated. "I should have known it would come down to this."

"Doesn't it always?" grinned Lyle. "The beauty of it is that there won't be any widespread death and destruction. Once I've taken care of the last of the people with throwback powers, which should take a few years to do properly without someone getting wise, all I have to do is run for some sort of minor office here in D.C. A few short television appearances later and I'm right at the top. Nobody will be able to resist, and most people won't even realize it happened."

Erika was appalled. The plan he'd outlined sounded dangerously as though it might work. "But—" she started.

"I've had enough answering questions. It's starting to get suspiciously like monologing. You four have all been in my way, in one way or another. It's time to get down to business." He crossed his arms. Jack and Erika looked at each other, then back at him. Lyle let out an irritated sigh and made a 'bring it on' gesture with the tips of his fingers.

"We won't let you get away with this?" Erika offered after a moment. Jack and Tex both snorted.

Lyle nodded shortly. "That'll have to do. Jerry, you get the honors. Take out the big shapeshifter. Use any means necessary."

"No!" Erika couldn't stop herself from wailing. She tried to stand, but her legs were still bound to the chair. "Jerry, don't," she yelled, but it was too late. Jerry's eyes heated red, and though Jack tried to dodge, he yowled in pain as Jerry's laser brushed his side. Erika smelled burning hair and skin.

"Don't do this. You'll be hurting a lot of innocent people," she begged Lyle, but he just kept his arms folded, eyes focused on the fight. Jack cried out in pain again, almost bringing tears to Erika's eyes. She swallowed them down and began to work at the bonds on her feet. She would not be a damsel in distress if she could help it.

Out of the corner of her eye, she watched the fight. Jack was not doing well at all. His massive frame was built much more for physical combat and not for dodging. Jerry was taking full advantage of this, and score after score now marked Jack's massive sides. Worse yet, Jerry seemed to have used his X-ray vision to discover the bullet in Jack's shoulder and was deliberately aiming to make him depend heavily on that side.

It took Erika a few more moments of furtive watching before she discovered one more reason why Jack was not doing as well as he might: he was deliberately trying to keep the combat away from Erika, Mai, and Tex. Jerry had no such scruples. There were several times when Erika was forced to duck, and there were melted holes in Tex's cage. She didn't think Tex had been hurt yet, which was a small blessing. Another was that Lyle was so focused on the fight itself that he hadn't bothered to look at what Erika's hands were up to. Erika frantically pulled at the knots, desperate to give some sort of aid to her companions.

At last, she was free. She reached around, placed a hand on her mother's forehead, and gave her a tiny jolt of power to wake her up. The amount was so small that it would take a minute or so before it actually had any effect.

She looked up again, and had to restrain a gasp of horror. Jerry had Jack backed into a corner. There was noplace left for the badly burned former shapeshifter to go.

"Finish him!" came Lyle's exultant voice.

"No!" Erika yelled. Without thinking, she flung herself forward to stand as a human shield between the two. She saw the brilliant orange-red of Jerry's eyes and set herself to take the blow.

A clawed paw shoved her heavily from behind, and she pitched to one side. There was a hissing sizzle, and laser beam split the air where Erika had been standing—right through Jack's heart.

Something cold took a grip on her heart as she stared at that little hole in the shaggy chest. Before she'd even had time to consider fully what it meant, she was already moving. She surged to her feet, and in two vicious moves learned from her mother and not at the Academy knocked Jerry unconscious to the floor. Then she was down on her knees beside Jack. He was wheezing and his eyes were glazed, but he was still alert.

"Why'd you do that?" she demanded in voice shaking with tears. "You know I could have taken that shot."

"Didn't want to take the chance. He was…aiming for your head." His gruff voice was little more than a hiss of breath.

"Oh, God, Jack, I'm sorry," was all she could think to say. "You shouldn't have…you didn't have to…"

"Yes…I did. You can…finish this. Without me." He closed his eyes.

"No, I can't! I need you," she whispered fiercely. She took his huge paw in both of her hands, trying to bring some heat back into them. She thought she saw his mouth twist up into a slight smile at her touch.

"Let him go. I don't think even you can heal a wound like that. It's over," came Lyle's voice from behind her. As if to prove the truth of his words, Erika felt Jack's paw relax ever so slightly in her hands.

"Shut up!" she screamed at Lyle. "You don't know anything about what I can do! Jack, wait. Hold on, please!" A distant part of her mind told her she was being hysterical and that she should concentrate on Lyle, but she couldn't bring herself to listen. Holding Jack's paw tight, she sent healing power into it. It hit a barrier like nothing she'd ever encountered. Again and again she tried, but it was like butting up against a plexiglass wall.

"Give it up," she heard Lyle say, as if from very far away.

"Never," she growled. She gathered everything she had and thrust it against that barrier. Nothing.

_I won't give up on him,_ Erika thought fiercely. Her heart ached at the thought of Jack being gone forever. He had so many scars left from the past, and she had hoped to one day help him move past them, as he'd done for her. As she collected her strength one last time, she felt a power she'd never known before welling up inside her. It was a force like the screaming wind of a hurricane that shook her down to her very core. Gathering it up, she flung it against the barrier between her and Jack.

And the barrier shattered. As her power poured into him, she felt herself emptying out, growing weaker and weaker. Still she kept on, despite the odd sensation that his paw was shrinking, drawing away from her. She clutched it tighter. _Heal him. Heal him completely,_ was her last coherent thought. Colored lights of white and green played before her eyes like lightning. Then she saw nothing but black.

* * *

_Author's Note: You probably hate me right now. I would hate me if I were in your shoes. All I can say at this point is stay tuned. The next installment is forthcoming!_

_SamoaPhoenix9_


	22. Lightning Splits the Sea

**Chapter 22**

_Disclaimer: So close to being mine I can almost touch it! But…not…yet…_

At first, it felt as though he were sinking. Down, down, down into a starless night Jack fell. There was no sensation of real movement, just a feeling of being pulling ever further into darkness.

Then, out of the shadows, an image of Erika appeared in front of him. She was dressed as she had been in his daydream: in a long, shimmering green dress, with black hair piled on her head. She reached out a hand to him. "Hold on," she whispered. Her voice had a slightly echoic quality about it.

Jack hesitated, unsure for a moment what taking that hand meant for him. Then he reached out and curled his fingers around hers. Fingers. Hand. Jack stared. As he watched, a change was spreading from their clasped hands. Without any effort on his part, he was changing back from animal into human. _Is this dying?_ he thought in wonder.

In what was probably less than a minute, the change was complete. Jack looked down at himself, then back at Erika, then down at himself again. He noticed slightly paler scar tissue on his shoulder, in the pattern an old bullet wound should be. Erika smiled and showed him something she held in her free hand: a well-crushed bullet.

Jack reached to take it, but before he could do so an enormous bolt of lightning flashed out of the surrounding darkness. It struck Erika, illuminating her entire body in pale fire. She flung back her head and vanished into it.

"Erika!" Jack cried. Putting out a hand, he tried to reach her, but got a jolt of sizzling heat to his fingers instead. Lightning laced its way up his arm; it played over him in thin shafts of jade green and blazing white. He had the brief impression of the green lightning turning a brilliant blue, then soaking into his skin, before the darkness rolled back with startling suddenness.

"Erika!" Jack shouted again, sitting bolt upright. White lightning still played over him, but it vanished quickly. He blinked the light-spots out of his eyes, and got his bearings. He was back in the room Erika, her mother, and Tex had been imprisoned in. Tex's cage was still in the corner, scored with burn holes like Swiss cheese. Erika's mother, Typhoon, was awake, staring at him with utter amazement in her eyes. The dark-haired boy Jack was pretty sure was called Lyle stood not far away, wearing a similar expression. Jerry, Jack's original adversary, lay unconscious on the floor. Jack vaguely remembered a distant sense of envy at the spectacular moves Erika had used to take him out. Erika…

She lay facedown next to him. Her eyes were closed, her skin was a sickly pale color, and he was pretty sure she wasn't breathing. One hand still clasped his, though there was no longer any life in her fingers. The other hand held something clenched tight in it. Jack reached out to touch it, and froze.

The hand that had just moved was his. He had hands again, not paws. He looked down at himself in awe. He wore no shirt, but then he hadn't been wearing one the last time he'd made the shift from human to Bear-man, over five years previously. In fact, he still wore his old uniform, a pair of skin-tight gray pants Tex had made for him. They were a little loose, testimony to the lean life he'd been living in the past years, but Jack was grateful for them just the same. Bare-chested, he could see that he was healed of all the burns Jerry had inflicted, including the one through his heart; in fact the only mark on him was the bullet scar on his shoulder he'd noticed earlier.

"Lord A'mighty," he heard Tex murmur from the other side of the room.

Jack turned back to Erika in wonder and growing horror. "What did you do, you idiot?" he moaned softly. "Did you trade your life for mine?" Silence was his answer.

"No…" Typhoon whispered miserably.

"Well, that was one of the more interesting things I've seen in my short lifetime," announced Lyle, breaking the pensive mood. "Unfortunately for you three, it doesn't change much in terms of your situation."

"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Tex, at the same time Typhoon demanded, "What's going on?"

"Sorry, Typhoon, you missed the explanations," Lyle said smugly. "I would let the gentlemen fill you in, but we don't have the time. I have a little job for you now that you're awake."

Raw horror slammed into Jack. Typhoon didn't have throwback powers. She was vulnerable to Lyle's mind games. Desperately, he tried to shift back to his other form, hoping he could knock Typhoon out again before she could fall under Lyle's control. Nothing happened. He tried again. Still nothing.

Lyle retreated to the door. Once he had it open, he stopped and nodded to Jack and Tex. "It's been nice knowing the two of you. Typhoon, go ahead and fill this room to the gills with water as soon as I close the door. I'll come back in…" he glanced at his watch. "…fifteen minutes. Make certain all of them are dead before I get back. And don't think the room will drain, either," he added to the men. "It's completely sealed on the inside. Soundproofed, too, so I won't hear any of your desperate screams until it's all over. Farewell."

"You little—" Jack started forward, but the door had already slammed shut. He heard the scrape of a lock from the other side.

A drop of water hit Jack on the back of the neck. He glanced up, only to have another land in his eye. He yelled in surprise and shook his head. Within seconds, a torrent of rain was pouring from the ceiling. Jack, shielding his eyes, looked at Typhoon. She stood in the center of the room, arms raised, calling more and more water to fall. Already there was a good inch on the floor.

Jack swore and quickly propped Erika up against the wall to keep her head out of the water, though he wasn't sure what good it would do. After a second's hesitation he did the same for Jerry, whom Lyle had apparently given up for a lost cause. Then he sloshed over to Tex's cage.

"It's good to have you back, kid," Tex said in an astonishingly cheerful voice, considering the circumstances. "Can you get me out?"

"I think so." It took only a few seconds of searching to find the catch on the cage door, and a few more seconds of fumbling to get it open. Out rushed a gray wolf, who quickly became a tall, tanned man with soaked gray hair. He and Jack shared a quick hug, then the pair sloshed back across the room. The water was creeping rapidly up their calves.

"Here, I'll take him. You take her," Tex declared. "We gotta to keep their heads above water for as long as we can while we figure a way out of this mess." He hefted Jerry with surprising ease.

Jack bent and tenderly lifted Erika up in his arms. She was much heavier than he remembered, but he braced himself and stood straight. "Now what?" he asked.

"Think you can ram us out of here?"

"I can't change back. I already tried," Jack replied, shaking water out of his eyes.

Tex shrugged, accepting this. "Well, that's one option gone. Anything else?"

"Could one of us can knock her out?" Jack suggested, nodding at Typhoon. "That might take care of the mind-control problem."

"Good idea. Here, take him for a minute and I'll see what I can do." Jack shifted his loads so that he had one arm around Erika's waist and another around Jerry's. Tex waded forward towards Typhoon through the waist-deep water. When he got within five feet of her, however, she turned to face him, eyes blazing. A spinning curtain of water appeared, encircling her completely. Tex staggered, slipped, and was carried up into the spout. It pulled him all the way to the ceiling, then spat him out. He landed next to Jack with an enormous splash.

"You know, if that hadn't been our last hope, it might have been funny," Jack commented when Tex stood up again.

Tex spat some water out of his mouth and glared at his former apprentice. "Glad to see your sense of humor's still intact, sonny. Any other bright ideas?"

Jack shook his head.

"Me neither," Tex admitted ruefully. "Well, let's get over by the door. Our best hope is that the pressure from the water busts it open when the room gets too full. It's a long shot, but it might just happen. C'mon."

Jack handed Jerry back over, lifted Erika up, and the pair of them made their way over to the door. They kicked at it, but it remained firmly shut.

"D'you think this is it?" panted Jack. He looked around the room. The water was chest high, and rising faster than ever.

"Dunno," answered Tex. After a moment, he added, just loud enough to be heard, "Probably."

Jack steeled himself. "Then if that's the case, I'm going to do something I've been wanting to do for awhile. I probably wouldn't have gotten the chance otherwise. It's a good thing she's not…awake. I don't know how she'd react to this."

Tex looked at Jack with understanding in his eyes. "Go ahead, son."

So, with the water lapping at his chin and his arms around her in a desperate embrace, Jack leaned down, closed his eyes, and kissed Erika's cold, still lips.

Except they weren't cold, not for long. At first Jack thought he was imagining it because he wanted so much for her to kiss him back, just once. Then he realized his feeling of lightheadedness wasn't from the final kiss of his life to the one girl he loved more than life. His knees felt weak, and he had to struggle to stay upright. But still he hung on, for one last moment.

He opened his eyes. Gentle blue light, similar to the light he sometimes saw when Erika performed her healings, was playing around his face. It vanished the moment he stopped concentrating on it. He felt gentle pressure that might have been Erika reciprocating the kiss.

He jerked his head back in astonishment. The moment their kiss broke, Erika's eyes snapped open. They were a darker green than he remembered, but then, the light was low. For a moment he fancied he could see fierce white lightning flashing through her irises.

She didn't ask for explanations. She didn't even ask who he was, though she had never seen him as a human before. Instead, she snaked her arms around his waist and hugged him, resting her head against the scar on his shoulder.

Jack blinked. The water should have been around his nose by this point, but it wasn't. In fact, it seemed to be going down. He looked over at Typhoon, but she was still encircled in a water cyclone, arms upraised. Water continued to pour from the ceiling, filling the room, but around Jack, Erika, Tex and Jerry a narrow column of air was rapidly draining. Wind spiraled around them, twisting their hair in crazy directions. It was like standing in the middle of a tornado on the bottom of a lake.

"What the Sam Hill is going on?" Tex yelled. He put a hand through the tornado 'wall.' It came back wet.

"We're not drowning. What more do you want?" Jack asked.

"But what's causing it?"

"I…I think I am." Erika spoke for the first time, stepping a pace away from Jack as she did so. She smiled at him, and again he thought he saw lightning flickering in her eyes. "I can get us out of this, I think," she continued. "You trust me, right?"

"Of course," answered Jack automatically.

"Then here. You'd better hold onto this." She passed him the thing that had been clenched in her hand the entire time.

Jack stared at the tiny crushed form of the bullet, pale against his palm. "How—"

"I'm not really sure." She blushed a little. "But I think it belongs to you." She paused, and looked at all of them. "Keep inside here. Don't touch the water, whatever you do." She took another step backwards, and the tornado bent and split. Now a smaller one encased her, separate from the one that circled the men. Her lips moved; it was hard to make out what she was saying through two sets of spinning water. Jack smiled, however, and mouthed 'Love you, too,' back.

They watched as she made her way forward towards her mother. Typhoon had noticed the encroachment, and waves were now lashing against Erika's column of air. Through the water, Jack could see the strain in Erika's posture. Her tornado tightened around her.

"What is she doing?" he heard Tex ask. "Why doesn't she want us to touch the water?"

"Watch," Jack answered, though he, too, longed to know Erika's plan.

There was a crackling sound. Lightning raced over Erika, playing through her hair, dancing along her arms, twining around her legs. Then it stabbed outwards, striking the surrounding water in a thousand places. Jack shielded his eyes as the whole room seemed to fill with liquid light.

When he looked again, it was over. The water in the room was draining away, back into the air from which it had been called. Erika stood in the center of the room, holding her mother tight and keeping the rapidly draining water away from them with an outstretched hand. In seconds, the room was empty but for the five of them. The once-grey walls were black nearly to the ceiling, scorched from the electrified water.

There was silence for a few moments more. Then Tex ventured, "How did you do that?"

"Electricity shorts her connection to water for awhile," Erika explained, holding a groggy Typhoon up. "I just gave her the equivalent of a giant tazer shot. Shouldn't have damaged her otherwise, but I wasn't sure what it would do to any of you."

"Not that. That!" Tex gestured helplessly around the room. "Keep us from drowning inside…inside some sorta tornado. Shoot _lightning_. I thought you were a healer, for Pete's sake!" Jack noted with interest that his normally unflappable mentor could actually be pushed into babbling. He wouldn't have thought it possible.

"I don't think I'm a healer anymore. Now I'm a…something else. A weather-worker, I guess," Erika admitted. She looked at Jack, a little sorrow and a good deal of pride in her face. "I think Jack's the healer now."

"_What?!_" Jack wasn't sure whether he or Tex shouted first.

"Did you think that kiss bringing me back was some sort of a fairytale Snow White deal?" she asked, her mouth quirking.

Jack stuttered, "Well, I—"

"Never mind," Tex interrupted. He seemed to have accepted that they would work out explanations later. "That Lyle kid's gonna come back soon. We need a plan, and we need one now."

"We can always hide until he comes to check on our drowned corpses. Then we knock him out," Jack suggested, still trying to shake off his amazement at the thought of being a healer rather than a shapeshifter.

"And then what?" asked Tex, folding his arms. "Someone as dangerous to the public as he is can't be taken to a common trial. He'd be released the second he opened his mouth."

"I think we should handle this within the family," announced Erika. That was code for keeping things among the superhero community rather than relying on civilian justice. "We make sure the Academy board knows how dangerous it is for anyone but people with throwback powers to talk to him. It's really all we can do. I mean, we can't kill him, which is our only other option."

"He would have killed us without a second thought," Jack pointed out, but it was more for form's sake. He knew she was right.

She glared at him. "Don't tempt me, Jack. I'm mad enough at the guy as it is."

"All right, I won't. How do we plan to knock'im out?"

"A tap on the head in the right place should do it," Tex said. "I'd prefer to do that, if neither of you objects."

"Just make sure you get him before he opens his mouth," Erika pointed out sourly.

"Will do, little lady," Tex replied with a cowboy salute that was only missing a ten-gallon hat to complete. All three of them laughed tiredly, and then Jack and Erika each took Jerry and Typhoon, respectively, into a corner to await Lyle's return. Jack could almost feel sorry for the kid when he pictured what was likely to happen next.

* * *

_Author's Note: Whew!_

_I know there are still some questions left to be answered, so there is a forthcoming epilogue-type chapter. It hardly seems like I'm almost done with this story. I've really enjoyed writing it, especially since it gave me an excuse to watch old cartoons that I'm way too old for in the interest of research purposes._

_This is the chapter that I've been picturing in my head for awhile and couldn't wait to share my visions with all of you. I would specifically like to request some feedback on what you guys thought of the power-changing thing. I can better sort things out if I know what questions you still have. That goes for anything else I haven't wrapped up until this point. I can't address if you don't ask!_

_SamoaPhoenix9_


	23. End of the Night

**Chapter 23**

_Disclaimer: At last! They're mine, to do with as I choose! Of course I couldn't have done this without inspiration from the Disney movie, so I must acknowledge it—one last time._

Jack turned the corner into Erika's neighborhood, hands in his pockets. He'd been human again for less than a week, and it was still hard to walk around in the open without a bit of discomfort. Tex had had to practically force him out the door.

"Your girl's expecting you," he'd said. "And I'm tired of you skulking around my house like a rabbit afraid of its own shadow. Get going."

"I'm not afraid!" Jack had protested. Tex merely quirked an eyebrow at him and shut the door firmly in his face. Jack sighed, and started walking.

Now, nearly at his destination, he had to admit that there was something to be said for being able to simply walk someplace rather than having to hide. And the warm sun did feel good on his skin. A day like today would already have been far too hot for the thick fur of Bear-man, but for a human Jack Bruin dressed in t-shirt and loose jeans it was just right.

Mai and Erika lived in a neighborhood of small-ish, close-together houses that were nevertheless neat and well cared for. There was nothing extraordinary about the exterior of the Cavanaugh house proclaiming that a pair of superheroines resided there, but then Jack hadn't expected it. He turned up the short front walk, ascended the porch, and knocked on the edge of the screen door.

There was silence in the house for a few seconds, and then he heard footsteps. The front door opened, and Jack found himself facing a tiny Asian woman with graying hair pulled into a severe bun; a woman who was neither Erika nor her mother. She assessed him coolly with dark, glittering eyes.

"Um, hi," Jack stammered. For a moment, he was terrified that he'd somehow gotten the wrong house.

Then Erika, sweat-streaked and wearing only a sports bra and workout shorts, appeared behind the woman. "Jack!" she exclaimed, a smile lighting up her face. "Come in!"

The older woman said something cross-sounding in what Jack assumed to be Japanese. Erika answered with a few terse words in the same language, then reached around to hold open the screen door for Jack. The woman grumbled a bit under her breath and stalked away down the hallway beside the narrow stairs.

"What was that about? And who's she?" asked Jack as he entered the foyer.

Erika rolled her eyes and looked affectionately after the woman. "That's my _O'basan_, my grandmother. She arrived yesterday from Japan. She says I'm not appropriately dressed to receive a male visitor." She glanced down at herself. "She's probably right. I just finished my workout."

"I guessed," Jack admitted, carefully keeping his eyes on her face. "I'm a little early, I know. What's your grandmother doing here?"

"It's a long story, but the gist of it is that she's here to train me. And to make certain _Haha _and I are all right after our big ordeal."

"You need more training? I thought you were almost ready for your solo year," said Jack.

"That was before I suddenly became a weather-worker. There's a lot for me to learn, so she may be here for awhile." Erika grinned ruefully.

"She's a weather-worker?" Somehow Jack had trouble picturing the severe little woman he'd just seen sprouting lightning.

"Of course." Erika raised an eyebrow at him. "It's why my grandparents got married. She's a weather-worker; he's got water-powers like my mother. They made a good team, when they were active in Japan. Anyway,_O'jisan_ is still miffed about _Haha_ marrying my dad and staying in America, so just _O'basan_ came. She said someone had to make sure their only grandchild carried on the family legacy, no matter where."

Jack felt an unexpected prickle of respect for Erika's grandmother.

"Anyway," Erika continued. "Let me go shower and get changed. Go ahead into the living room; I'll be down as soon as I can." She started up the stairs.

"But—" Jack glanced nervously down the hall, where he could hear two nearly identical female voices speaking rapidly in Japanese.

Erika smiled reassuringly. "Don't worry; my mother will translate anything_O'basan_ says." Still Jack hesitated. Erika came back down the stairs and put her hands on his shoulders. "You'll be fine, Jack. You have to start reconnecting with people sometime, and these two are already predisposed to like you."

"I know." Jack couldn't help looking away.

"Go on. They won't bite." Erika turned his shoulders so that he was facing the hallway. Then she vanished upstairs so fast he didn't have time to come up with another protest. Jack glanced after her, then squared his shoulders and went into the living room.

Mai and Erika's grandmother were sitting on couches in the living room when he came in, but both of them stood up when they saw him in the doorway.

"Jack-san, it's nice to see you again," said Mai. She came over to shake his hand warmly. It was odd to see her without her mask on. Her face looked much less forbidding without it.

"It's nice to see you again, too, Mrs. Cavanaugh," he said, returning the handshake.

She nodded, then turned to the severe woman. "Let me introduce you to my mother. I assume my daughter told you she's here to visit."

"Yeah, she did." Now that they were standing side-by-side he could see the strong resemblance between the two women. Looking closely, he could even find a few features he recognized from Erika's face in both of them. It was odd relying more on his eyes than his nose to assess people these days, but it was getting easier.

Mai said something in Japanese to her mother. Jack caught his own name somewhere in the course of the sentence. The older woman bowed from the waist, accompanying the gesture with more words that Jack didn't understand. He bowed uncertainly back, then looked at Mai in some confusion.

Mai was not smiling, but there were laugh lines around her eyes. "She says it's a pleasure to meet you. She also says that you might as well call her_O'basan_, as Eriko does, because you are family in everything but blood."

Jack was speechless. He'd lost his own family so long ago, and now here were these people he barely knew offering to admit him to theirs. Granted, he loved Erika and he was pretty sure she loved him, but he hadn't expected to move beyond 'boyfriend' status with her family for quite some time. He defeated the urge to cry, but just barely.

Erika's grandmother said something impatient-sounding.

"She says it is the least we can do. She also says that she thinks Eriko has chosen wisely now that she's gotten a look at you," translated Mai.

"I—" Jack felt his face getting hot.

"No need to be embarrassed. It is the privilege of the old to say what they please, and the place of the young to be appalled by it." Now Mai did smile, inviting him to share the joke. To his own surprise, Jack found himself chuckling a little. The grandmother glared at her daughter. Apparently she understood English better than she spoke it.

"Have a seat while you wait for Eriko," offered Mai, waving at the couches. "We were just discussing the fate of the young man who orchestrated these terrible events."

"Ah," Jack said dubiously as he sat down. It was hard for him to have an opinion about what had happened to Lyle, or rather what he'd done to himself. The Academy had been holding him, gagged, in a special cell they kept for such rare occasions that a superhero had to be imprisoned. Apparently, their supervision hadn't been close enough, because he'd committed suicide before anyone could talk to him. Jack was glad to have him gone after all he'd planned to do, but he couldn't help feeling a little sorry for the guy. Hanging yourself with a set of bedsheets didn't seem like a particularly pleasant way to go.

When he mentioned this, both women nodded. Erika's grandmother asked a question.

"She wants to know what the Academy would have done to him had he been tried by them," Mai explained to Jack. She thought for a moment, then said, "I am not sure what American rules say. But I doubt the sentence would be merciful."

Her mother spoke again and Mai translated, "In Japan, he would have been executed in the old manner of the samurai. His head would have been cut off by those he had wronged." To Jack, Mai added, "As you might expect, the heroes of Japan have a strict code of honor. To violate it is a very serious thing."

"I understand. But I'm sort of glad we don't have rules like that here. I'm not sure I would have been up to cutting off anyone's head, even his," Jack admitted. "I got into enough trouble taking one guilty man's life."

"You've learned a lot since we first met," Erika said from behind him. Jack looked around to find her standing in the doorway to the hall.

"Thanks to you," he said, standing up and walking around to give her a quick hug. She didn't stink of sweat, but her hair wasn't even damp. "Did you actually shower?" he asked before he could stop himself.

She gave him a look. "Of course I did. Why?"

"Your hair's not wet."

"There are advantages to being able to call up a whirlwind whenever you want," she grinned.

"If there is even a single spilled bottle from another of your wind experiments in the bathroom, then I will actually enforce your curfew tonight," Mai threatened.

"There isn't," Erika informed her mother loftily. "I've gotten a little better since yesterday. And anyway, we weren't even going to stay out that late, right, Jack?"

"Right," Jack agreed quickly, seeing the look on Mai's face.

"Where are you planning to go?" the superheroine demanded.

"Just dinner, and maybe walk around a little. We'll be back long before you have to leave on patrol," Erika said. She had not been patrolling since the incident with Lyle, per orders of the Academy Board. They didn't want accidents until her powers were fully under her control. Jack had been given no such ban, but neither was he officially back on the roster. For the moment, he was in a position of limbo until the board finished deliberating about his fate. Which could take some time.

Erika's grandmother spoke, the results of which were that Erika smiled and Mai scowled.

"_Arigato, O'basan,_" Erika said with a neat bow. Then she ushered Jack out the front door.

"What was that about?" Jack asked once they were strolling down the sidewalk.

"_O'basan_ said we might as well go have fun while we can," answered Erika with a shrug. "Typical of her; she likes to add a pragmatic twist to everything she says."

"Why is your mother annoyed with us going out? I thought she liked me."

Erika sighed. "She does like you. She's just taken it into her head that you're too old for me."

"I'm twenty-six," Jack pointed out.

"I know, and you don't even look it," Erika replied, sliding an arm through his. "You look like you should be about twenty-one, which would put you only a year or so older than me."

"I don't feel twenty-six, either. I've missed five years of my life. To all intents and purposes except counting years since I was born, I am twenty-one," said Jack with a small grin.

"Glad to hear it. Be sure to tell that to _Haha_ the next time she tries to stall us from getting out of the house," answered Erika. "I can say with certainty I hope we don't run into Jerry and that girlfriend of his," she said cheerfully after a block or so. "They're both nice and all, now that Lyle's gone, but still. You'd have thought they would show a little more respect to the Board when giving a formal deposition by detaching from each other occasionally…" she kept talking, but Jack's mind was elsewhere. At last, she shook his shoulder and said, "Is something bothering you?"

"Not really," he replied, startled. "I was just thinking about something your grandmother said before you came down. She told me…" he paused, swallowed, then continued, "She told me I'm a part of your family now in everything but blood. What did she mean by that?"

"How could she be more straightforward? You are now unofficially a member of…oh, you meant the blood part. Well, the three of us have been talking about this over the past couple of days, trying to figure out exactly what happened when I, well…" She trailed off.

"Brought me back from the dead," finished Jack when she was silent too long.

"Yes." Erika looked so uncomfortable that Jack untwined his arm from hers and put it around her shoulder instead. She smiled at him. "Thank you. What I was going to say was, we're pretty sure that's when the change occurred. I put so much of my healing energy into you that it replaced your shapeshifting somehow."

Jack recalled his vision of the green lightning which turned blue and soaked into him. "That sounds reasonable. Then why aren't you a shapeshifter now, if we switched powers?" he asked.

"I didn't say we switched. I said my power replaced yours. It's not the same thing," pointed out Erika.

"But—" Jack started, then stopped at the look she was giving him. "Sorry. I'm confused. Go ahead and explain, please."

"Thank you. What we think happened is that I inherited weather-working from my mother's side and healing from my father's, but the healing was the more assertive trait. Go figure. So I ended up a healer, except for a few little quirks."

"You always knew what the weather was going to be," Jack recalled.

"Exactly. But when the healing went into you, the weather-working was able to come to the forefront. You gave me energy with my own gift, now belonging to you, which got my new power going. Don't ask me how I realized what had happened so fast, but somehow I knew enough to figure out how to save us." She shrugged.

Jack pondered this for an entire half a block before saying, "Makes sense to me."

"Good. I was afraid you'd ask for more details, and I can't give them. But it seems, at least to my grandmother, that since you now have the power that was once mine, that makes you as good as a grandson. And since you don't have any family of your own left…"

"I don't know what to say."

"Then don't say anything. All I'm trying to say is that we're connected, Jack, in a way probably nobody will ever understand. Family might be the closest word we have for it, without blood or genetics being involved." Her voice wavered, and she looked away.

They'd arrived at the small restaurant they'd planned to eat at, which gave them both some time to recover their dignity. Jack reveled in the normalcy of just ordering a glass of iced tea, and Erika seemed amused in just watching him enjoy it.

"So what are you going to do now?" she asked while they were waiting for their food to arrive.

Jack didn't need to ask what she meant. "I just have to wait for the Board to decide what to do with me. Until then, who knows? I don't even know how to be a healer."

"I can teach you. It's all about learning control so you don't totally drain yourself healing a paper cut," she said. They both chuckled at this. Erika took up a piece of the bread they'd been given as an appetizer and began to shred it over her plate. "Actually, I had an idea I want to toss out."

"Go ahead. I'm listening." He put down his cup and crossed his hands on the table.

"Well, I was thinking, you need a crash course in healing, and that's all I know how to do. We both need some useful occupation until the Board decides we're fit for active duty again. I was thinking we could take a couple of classes…become certified EMTs."

"EMTs? You mean like the people who work in ambulances? Those kind of EMTs?" Jack turned the idea over in his head, wondering as he did why something of the sort hadn't occurred to him before.

"Yeah. I can teach you about controlling your powers, while I train with my grandmother on how to control mine. It should be a crazy life, but I think it might work out for the best. And we can save a few lives while we're at it."

"I think...I think it's a great idea." Jack paused. "And then what?"

"Once we're both cleared to work as superheroes again?" she asked. He nodded. She tucked a strand of black hair behind her ear, and then looked him straight in the eye. "I'm up for a full partnership."

Jack felt a slow smile spread across his face. "I was hoping you'd say that. Erika, I'm not sure about a lot right now, but I am sure about one thing: we are connected. I love you."

"Jack, I love you, too."

They leaned across the table and the scattered breadcrumbs to share a sweet, gentle kiss. They only broke apart when someone cleared her throat pointedly nearby: the waitress, carrying their plates and looking somewhat put out. Grinning and blushing by turns, Jack and Erika settled down to eat the first of many meals together.

**The End**

* * *

_Author's Note/Oscar Speech: (contented sigh) I think I hit everything that needed to be cleared up . If I missed anything, be sure to let me know. I've had a lot of fun writing this fic, even though it took me a lot longer to finish than I thought it would._

_Translations: Mai puts –san after Jack's first name because it's a typical thing for Japanese to do with American friends. That way they use a respectful title, but they don't sound quite so formal to American ears by always using a last name. Arigato, of course, means thank you._

* * *

_Acknowledgements! People first--_

_Cywyllog (and Mordred): Words cannot express the gratitude, if not for previewing every chapter and supporting me while plotting, then for just being the best roommate(s) anyone could ever ask for._

_shortstef: I think you've reviewed every single chapter except for maybe two. Wow. Your dedication astounds me. I am a big fan of your work, so it's nice to see you like something of mine as well. Your sincere comments are very much appreciated._

_ErisahMae: You get your own special section because though you haven't reviewed every chapter, you reviewed both the first and most recently posted chapters (barring this one). I really appreciate you sticking with me. I know I made you wait a lot for installments._

_Kayasuri-n and teardrop456: You guys were also original reviewers, and some of my most consistent. Thank you both for your dedication and putting up with my slowness in updating. I always enjoyed hearing from you. Kayasuri, you've even been around since Nightingale! I hope this one met your approval._

_El Corazon Sangriento and Stargal88: my other original reviewers, though I haven't heard from either of you for awhile. Hope you're still reading, and that you enjoyed._

_CalliopeMused, Tuima, and Earth Gurdian: You three are some of my best reviewers. You can usually be counted on to comment, and thoughtfully. Thank you very, very much. Earth Gurdian especially, you drove me a little nuts trying to figure out where I was going next before I wrote it. I try really hard not to be too predictable, but I feel there's only so far I can innovate on plotline before it becomes something other than fanfiction. I know you are only commenting to help me get better, so thanks for that._

_Lara, PhantomsAreDropDeadSexy, and Rhiannon Amidala: You guys reviewed at least more than one time. It's always nice to know that people keep reading after they've left me a review._

_IrishIsis, Lotte Rose, RaptorChicky, sueariel, psalmsofthelamb, simplegrl007, The Slate Reaper, Belle'srose, Jeruselum, Jewel-Gurl73: The rest of my reviewers. What can I say? I like hearing from anyone, anytime. I hope all of you are still reading. Some of you are still here from previous works of mine, and some of you are new. Love and appreciation to you all!_

_My silent readers: Thanks for reading, everybody! I know that those of you who got to this point must have liked something about my work even if you never told me what it was. Hope I didn't disappoint._

_Non-human sources--_

_Superhero stuff: everything from Saturday morning cartoons to the big blockbuster movies like Spider-man, Batman Begins, Fantastic Four, and so on. One thing I did not consult were comic books; never really got into them and college seems a poor time to do so when you're only planning to use them for research purposes. They seem to get a lot into time travel, alternate universes, and so on, none of which I planned to use._

_Music: I listened to an iTunes playlist I built for this story, and I can't possibly list all the songs on it. A few specific ones need acknowledgement for their inspiration because they belong to specific characters or scenes. "The Power of Love" by Céline Dion for the 'ballroom' scene, "Get Ready 4 This" by Beat Dominator for Erika's theme song, and "Ever Ever After" by Carrie Underwood for the final chapter. And, of course, the inspiration for both the title of this story and the new chapter titles, "Holding Out for a Hero," especially the version as sung by Jennifer Saunders in "Shrek 2," though it is originally from the movie "Footloose." The chapter titles are now lyrics from that song._

_Unless something really big comes to me, I don't plan to write for Beauty and the Beast again for awhile. I can't make any promises at this point as to future plans. It seems to me at this point that there's only so many times you can do creative remakes of the movie in different settings. I will keep tabs on the Beauty and the Beast section of because new stuff is always popping up that's really worth reading. And older stuff in progress is continually updated._

_So thanks again for everything. It's been a real adventure!_

_Over and out,_

_SamoaPhoenix9_


	24. Holiday Special Chapter: Heroes' Holiday

**The Heroes' Holiday**

_Hello again! Here's a little holiday treat for you all starring the cast of Holding Out for a Hero. The only thing I have to say that I don't own about this is Christmas, which belongs to everyone whether you celebrate it or not._

_It was pointed out to me by an astute reader that I neglected to give Jack and Erika hero names for the future. That, plus a few other little things I wanted to elaborate on, led me to write this extra chapter. I didn't feel that I could post it separately in the Beauty and the Beast section since it no longer parallels anything Disney._

_Summary: It's almost Christmas, and Jack's ready to become an official superhero again. The only problem: he needs a name. With a spark from a young boy discovering his own powers, anything might be possible._

_Enjoy! _

* * *

Jack was in his small room, adjusting his EMT uniform before heading to the local fire station. He tugged his collar straight, then examined himself in the mirror. After six months, his reflection still startled him occasionally. For the most part, he looked the same as he had before his shapeshift had become permanent: tall, with permanently shaggy dark-blond hair, a firm mouth that smiled easily, and skin that never seemed to lose its slight tan even in winter. His eyes were, if possible, an even brighter blue; a small physical side effect of the change in his powers. He'd put on some weight since his return to human form, but the majority of that was actually muscle. Training with Erika, Mai, and Erika's grandmother Akira, he'd been put through some of the most grueling workouts of his life, and they didn't seem to be getting any easier.

There was a knock on the door. "Come in," Jack called.

Tex entered, dressed as usual in cowboy boots, jeans, and a faded collared shirt. "Just about ready to go, sonny?"

"Just about. I'm meeting Erika at the station. We're hoping it'll be a quiet day, but not really counting on it. You wouldn't believe some of the stuff people get up to around the holidays. Lighting trees on fire, stabbing themselves with carving knives, swallowing mistletoe, that kind of thing. It's been a real education."

"I can imagine," Tex chuckled. "You'll have the day after Christmas off, though, right?"

"Happens to fall on one of the days we're not on duty. We were lucky." Jack glanced at his former mentor's face in the mirror. "Why?"

"I've heard through the grapevine that there's going to be an official decision from the Academy Board on that day. They'll be ruling on whether or not you're allowed back on the roll. Likely it will go in your favor."

"Finally!" Jack burst out. "It's taken them long enough." The pair started down the steps towards the coat closet.

"It's definitely about time," Tex agreed. "There were enough special circumstances to blow the roof off the rulebook, but there really should still be some sort of a limit on how long the Board gets to deliberate. In my humble opinion, anyway."

"So what will this decision mean?" asked Jack as he pulled on a heavy coat.

Tex rubbed his chin. "You'll get to declare if you want a partner to be assigned to your district with you."

"You know I do. Erika and I are planning on it." Jack fished around in the closet for gloves and a hat.

"They know that, too. Likely they'll remind you that means you'll have to wait to get a district to patrol until your girl's been cleared to work as well, and all that stuff."

"Yeah. We're hoping she might get cleared in the spring sometime. Her control's a lot better now; she doesn't spark when she gets annoyed these days. She's been working really hard with her grandmother. Until she's ready, we plan to keep working for emergency services."

"Erika's not the only one who'd getting better at control," Tex commented, "Time was you'd show up after a night on duty barely able to stand up straight."

"She's taught me a lot," answered Jack. He pulled on his hat and headed out the door.

"There's one more thing," said Tex from the doorway.

Jack flinched against the cold wind outside and turned. "What is it?"

"You should probably have a working name ready. Since I assume you'd rather not use Bear-man."

"Right," said Jack dully, his stomach sinking.

"Think about it. You've still got a couple days," replied Tex. Then he shivered, and shut the door. Jack pulled his jacket tighter, allowed himself one small wistful thought about a thick, warm fur coat, and started up the block towards the fire station.

Erika was already there when he arrived. He greeted her with what he intended to be a quick kiss that she deepened and held for several seconds. Jack had little objection to this, but it earned them several whistles from the rest of their shift.

"Save that for off-duty, you two," called one of the firemen once they'd broken their kiss. Erika stuck her tongue out good-naturedly at him and led Jack over to the table where she'd been sitting with a cup of hot chocolate.

"You're a little late," she observed when they were settled.

"Tex sprang something on me at the last minute as I was going out the door," grumbled Jack, running a hand through his already mussed hair.

"What was it?" she asked when he didn't elaborate.

"I'm up for recommissioning on active status. The Board is formally announcing the decision the day after Christmas." They could never discuss superhero business too openly while at the station. None of their comrades knew the pair of them had powers, and they planned to keep it that way.

"It's taken them long enough," she commented, echoing his earlier thoughts. "This is a good thing, right?"

"I have to have a name picked out by then," Jack said in a low voice.

"Oh." Erika looked thoughtful. "That would present a problem."

"What were you going to do about it? I mean, you were pretty close to your solo year when we, you know."

"I know," she agreed. "I hadn't really come up with a solution yet either. Now, I'm thinking of trying on Hurricane."

"Oh, great. How am I supposed to come up with a name in less than three days when you couldn't come up with something after years of being a healer?"

"I'm sure you'll—" she started to say, but then her head jerked up as the alarm rang.

"House fire," someone shouted over the scraping of chairs as everyone leaped to their feet.

"Just what we need," Jack muttered, but there was no real heat in it. He hadn't realized until his first day on the job here how much he'd missed being able to help total strangers, and the feeling still hadn't worn off despite the grueling hours and little thanks.

Within seconds they were in the ambulance and blazing out of the station. Jack held on grimly and wondered what sort of state they would find the place in when they arrived.

They soon found out. The house was a moderate sized one, larger than Tex's or Erika's. Only part of the second floor was in flames, he could see through the windows. The firemen quickly got to work.

A woman was being restrained by several paramedics from running back into the house. "My son is in there! Davy! David!" she kept screaming.

Jack and Erika came to help hold her back. "I'm sure they'll get him out, ma'am," Jack reassured her. At that moment, however, he saw a fireman come out of the house shaking his head, saw him mouth the words "Too hot." Jack only had to glance at Erika, and then the two of them were sprinting towards the house. Around the back they ran, through the unlocked back door and inside. As they charged up the stairs to the second floor, Jack could feel the heat tighten his skin.

"We don't have much time," Erika said. "It won't take them long to realize we're not out there."

Jack nodded. "Can't you cool it down?" he panted.

"A little. I can't do too much or it'll be noticeable when they investigate the cause of this fire," she said. She held out one hand in front of them. Mist seemed to radiate out from it like tiny crystals, and the heat reduced to a bearable level. Erika's mouth quirked a little. "I can't make snow; not yet. But this should do the trick."

"It's perfect. Now we just need to find the kid." Both of them started calling as loud as they dared. A noise like a child's whimper was their answer from the far end of the hall.

The door disintegrated as they approached. "David?" Erika asked as they peered inside. Then she clutched Jack's arm with a hand that was cold even in the fire's heat. Jack felt his eyes widen.

In the center of the room, curled up in a miserable ball under the charred remains of a bed, was a boy of about five or six, a skinny little thing with a mop of sandy hair. He was practically naked, his clothes having burned off him. He was also on fire. Little flames were licking all over him, but his skin was unmarked.

"Dear God," breathed Erika. "He's a pyro. A fireworker. He's got to be."

"He started the fire, probably by accident," Jack added.

"Poor thing," she said sympathetically. "David?" she called. "Can you come out? We're here to help you."

The child's head shot up at the sound of her voice. He stared at them with wide eyes that were an odd gold color shot through with flecks of orange. Then, quick as a flash, he squirmed out from under the blackened bed and ran to them. Burning arms wrapped themselves around Jack's waist, and he couldn't suppress a yell of pain. The boy only squeezed harder.

"Erika! Do something!" Jack cried.

"Working on it!" In seconds they were all soaking wet from a miniature rainstorm. The flames dancing over the boy extinguished themselves in a hiss of steam, and the pain of his arms grew less. Jack could still feel the burns, though. The boy began to sob.

Heavy boots were pounding on the stairs behind them. Jack peeled the boy off as nicely as he was able and performed as fast a healing on himself as he'd ever done. The burns flared blue and turned into fresh pink skin as the boy stared.

"How'd you _do_ that?" he asked, speaking for the first time.

"Explanations later, kid," Jack whispered brusquely, "Let the grown-ups sort things out first." They turned to face the firemen dashing towards them. All of them skidded to a halt when they saw the boy clutching Jack's hand.

"We found him," Erika said weakly.

Fortunately, there was still a fire to put out, and the firemen didn't waste time on awkward questions. Erika, Jack, and David were herded out of the house, where the boy was enveloped in his parents' arms. Then all three of them were examined by fellow EMTs. It was only as then that Jack noticed that they were no longer wet. The fire must really be hot. Either that or Erika's ever-expanding control over the wind had had something to do with it.

The EMTs couldn't believe none of the small group had been burned, or even sustained much damage from smoke inhalation. Jack and Erika they wrote off as lucky, the burns on Jack's pants notwithstanding, but the boy they insisted on taking to the hospital to have him checked. David's father had to stay at the house to handle insurance claims, so it was David, his mother, Jack, and Erika that climbed into the back of the ambulance.

As soon as they started driving, Erika pulled out her cell phone.

"What are you doing?" Jack whispered. "You can't call _them_ here!" They both knew he meant the Board.

"I'm not. I'm calling _Haha_. She'll handle all that for us," she whispered back. Jack heard Mai pick up on the other end. Erika had begun to teach him some of the basics of her mother's native language, but most of the following conversation was far beyond his level to follow.

David, clad only in a blanket, leaned over so far he was practically in Jack's lap, watching Erika talk with wide eyes. Jack was tempted to lean away, the pain of the last time the kid had touched him still fresh in his mind, but there was no room to do so.

"What language was that?" asked David's mother when Erika hung up. Jack detected only casual curiosity in her voice.

"Japanese," Erika replied in that disarmingly frank manner of hers. "I needed to ask my mother a few quick questions."

"Oh, are you Japanese? I'm sorry, you don't…" the woman trailed off, apparently aware that she was being politically incorrect.

"I understand," Erika agreed earnestly. "My father was Irish. Irish-American, anyway. I'm Erika Cavanaugh, and this is my partner Jack Bruin." The woman shook both of their hands.

"Thank you so much for finding my son," she said warmly.

"Is she your girlfriend?" David asked Jack.

"David!" his mother admonished. "That's not a polite question at all!"

"It's OK," Jack assured her. To David, he said, "Yes, she is." He put an arm around her shoulder to prove it.

The boy smiled sweetly at them both. "I could tell. She's pretty. And nice. You're lucky."

If Jack could have boiled his sentiments about Erika into three sentences, those would probably have been close to what he'd come up with. "Thanks," he said, in charity with the little fireworker for the first time.

Erika spoke to the mother. "They'll probably check him in at the hospital for overnight observation, just to make absolutely sure nothing happened to him in the fire."

Jack recognized the tone of her voice; it was the one she used when she wore her superhero mask. Then it clicked. Of course the hospital would check David in, but not for any medical reasons. The Academy had several contacts at the hospital, and they would want to talk with David and his parents on neutral ground about the boy's future.

The rest of the ride to the hospital was relatively quiet. David seemed content to just watch Jack and Erika, Jack in particular. He had the air of figuring out a puzzle, which made Jack uncomfortable. It didn't take a genius to guess what the puzzle was; he was willing to bet the kid would be far less surprised by the true purpose of the visitors from the Academy than his parents.

They unloaded at the hospital. At the point of clambering out of the ambulance, suddenly David turned back and flung his arms around Jack again. Jack could not help wincing, but there was no burning sensation this time. "You'll be all right, kid," he managed.

"Come see me, won't you?" the boy begged.

"Of course," Jack promised without thinking.

"Good." David released him abruptly, took his mother's hand, and the two of them went through the automatic doors to the emergency room.

"Come on," Erika prodded Jack when he stared after David and his mother a moment too long. "We've still got work to do."

-0-0-

"That kid was cute, in a dangerous sort of way," Erika commented that night at a small Chinese restaurant near her house. "He seemed to really like you. Must recognize a kindred spirit."

"Ha ha," Jack grumbled, a little more snappishly than he intended. He was no closer to coming up with a name than ever, and now he'd promised to go see the kid at the hospital the next day.

"I'll go with you if you want," Erika offered when he mentioned this.

"I'd appreciate that. I'm not sure what I'd say to him," Jack admitted.

"You might not have to _say_ anything," she pointed out. "He may just want reassurance. Accidentally setting fire to your house has got to be traumatizing. And I can only imagine what finding out you have superpowers must be like."

"How did you find out about yours?" he asked, curious.

"It seems like I've always known," she replied thoughtfully. "The consequence of growing up in a household with superhero parents. What about you?"

He thought briefly. "I was excited when I found out, and a little scared. I guess I was about David's age then. But I never really destroyed anything major, either. A couple of doors and a table or two is all I remember."

Erika laughed and put her chin in her hands. "Ooh, I want to hear about this one."

They spent an enjoyable evening swapping stories about childhood scrapes. It was only much later as he was getting into bed that Jack remembered his worries about David and choosing a superhero name. He sighed and pulled up the covers. Erika still maintained the ability to make him forget his troubles, at least for a time. He smiled and closed his eyes.

-0-0-

The next morning came all too quickly. Jack met Erika at her house early for a workout and quick breakfast with Mai and _Obasan_. Then the pair took the Metro to the hospital.

The children's wing was brightly decorated for the holidays, and Jack remembered with a start that it was Christmas Eve. He felt a stab of sympathy for David. _Poor kid, stuck in the hospital on Christmas Eve morning. He should be at home, counting presents under the tree._ Even when Jack had lived at the Academy after his parents died, the teachers and staff who lived there year-round had made it an exciting time.

David's mother and father met them in the hall outside his room. Both looked as though they hadn't slept.

"Good morning," Erika greeted them cheerfully. "How's David feeling?"

"Fine," his mother said with a ghost of a smile. "He hasn't stopped asking when you were coming this morning," she added to Jack. But she seemed reluctant to let either of the two young people into her son's room.

"We had a visit from some very interesting people yesterday afternoon about David," his father said abruptly. There was an awkward pause. "Did you know?" he finally demanded.

"Sir, this is hardly the right place to talk about it," Erika said, her professional mask-voice back in place.

"_Did you know_?" he persisted.

"Well—" Erika started, then stopped. She smiled, ever so slightly. "I'd be careful with whom you talk about this, sir. Though there are probably more of us than you might guess." She played with something between her fingers as she spoke. Jack saw both parents' eyes fix on her hand, then grow round. It took him a moment to recognize that the thing she toyed with was a miniature bolt of lightning that snaked between her fingers like a docile piece of string. _Boy, her control's better than I realized!_ he thought.

Erika closed her hand; the lightning balled up and vanished. "I know this is a lot for you to grasp right now, but please understand. We are not the enemy. We're not here to steal your son away, by any stretch of the imagination. He has a gift; a gift he can use to help people, given time and training." She glanced at Jack. "Why don't you go talk to David while I see if I can help them feel better about this? Is that all right?" she asked the parents. At the mother's nod, she led them to a nearby set of couches. Jack slipped into David's room.

The boy's face lit up when he entered. "Jack!" He scrambled out of bed and hugged Jack around the waist, hard. He mumbled something into Jack's jeans.

"What?" asked Jack, prying off the vicelike grip.

"Can you fix me?" David asked in a small voice.

"Fix you?" Jack repeated, thrown and feeling a bit stupid.

The boy crawled back onto the bed and drew his knees up to his chest. "The people who came to see us yesterday said our house almost burned down because of something I did. I saw you fix the way I accidentally burned you before. Can you fix me?"

"You don't need fixing," Jack began indignantly. Then he drew a deep breath and contained his temper. "I can't fix you, kid, because there's nothing wrong with you. Just like there's nothing wrong with me, or with Erika." David still looked distrustful, so Jack tried again. "You know how some people have blue eyes and some people don't?" David nodded. "Well, it's kind of like that. Some people have powers and some people don't. You and I, and Erika, we have power. Erika can make it rain when she wants. I can heal people when they're sick or hurt. You can, well, start fires. But that doesn't have to be a bad thing. If you work hard and learn to control it, you can use your power for good the way Erika and I do."

"Are you superheroes?" David asked eagerly.

"Yes. Well, in a way. It's complicated right now," Jack replied. Seeing he had his audience's rapt attention, he sighed. "We're superheroes in training. When we're both ready, we'll be partners and use our powers to help people who need it."

"Do you get to wear masks and costumes and have cool names so nobody knows who you are?" David asked eagerly.

Jack winced, but only replied, "Yes."

"What's your superhero name?"

Jack swore inside his head. Somehow he'd known the kid would ask that. "I…well…I don't have one yet," he confessed. He could feel his face burning and wished briefly for his old fur coat to hide it.

"Maybe I can help you pick!" offered David eagerly. He spent the next few minutes rattling off various suggestions, several of them quite creative. None seemed to fit, but Jack actually came to appreciate the boy's unabashed enthusiasm. Eventually they turned on the in-room TV and sat watching it together, David still occasionally throwing out ideas based on words he heard or saw on the screen. Once, David was laughing so hard from the cartoon character's antics that he bumped the remote. The Weather Channel appeared.

"Change it back!" David exclaimed, then paused. "What's that word?"

"What word?" Jack glanced up from the myriad buttons on the remote to see where the six-year-old pointed. The weather was being given for several cities in Arizona. "Oh, that's…" he paused, and let it sink in. "Phoenix," he breathed.

"Fee-nix?" David repeated. "That's a funny word. Can that be your name?"

"You know, kid," replied Jack, "You might have just hit on something."

"Are you boys about done? We should be getting home," announced Erika, poking her head into the room. She saw the expression on Jack's face. "Jack? Are you OK?"

Jack gave his head a small shake to clear it. "I'll tell you later. Did you clear things up out there?"

"Think so." Erika twisted her mouth wryly, and Jack grinned back. Apparently she'd had a worse time than he had convincing David's parents of the potential virtues of their son's abilities. "They'll be seeing him at the Academy in a year or two, at least."

"'Bye, Jack!" David exclaimed, throwing out his arms for a hug. Jack returned it without reservation.

"See you later, kid," he said with a wave. He passed David's parents on the way out. Behind him, he heard an enthusiastic boy's voice say, "I'm gonna be a superhero, Dad!" He smiled, put an arm around Erika's shoulders, and the pair left the hospital.

-0-0-

Walking Erika home from the Metro stop, she leaned against him. "So what was it you were going to tell me?"

"Oh, right. I think I figured out a name possibility."

"Well?" Erika looked at him eagerly.

"What do you think of Phoenix? I know there are connotations of fire that I don't have, but…"

"I think I understand. You've risen from the ashes, proverbially speaking. And with your healing, you help other people rise, too." She paused. "You also seem to have helped David rise from ashes of his own, without using your power at all. I think it's perfect."

Jack felt something light and feathery brush his cheek. He reached up and wiped it off. A tiny white crystal shone one his finger before melting away. Several more snowflakes drifted past his face to settle around them. A few feet in front and behind them, no snow was falling. He glanced down at Erika. "Are you…"

She grinned. "Not sure how long I can keep this miniature White Christmas Eve up. But it's my first real snow."

"You could just _say_ 'hurry up and kiss me,'" Jack pointed out.

"You figured it out quick enough." They kissed gently, the snow drifting around them like little pieces of the sky falling from heaven.

"Merry Christmas, Hurricane," Jack whispered when they parted.

"Merry Christmas, Phoenix," she replied. Arm in arm, they continued walking down the sidewalk.

* * *

_Author's Note: Happy Holidays, everybody! I know it's shameless to use part of my penname for a character, but I can honestly say I didn't think of that when I decided to call Jack "Phoenix." I hope you don't mind._

_Thanks for the wonderful reviews thus far!_

_SamoaPhoenix9_


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